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Consistency of self-administered and interview-based Addiction Severity Index composite scores
C S Rosen1, B R Henson, J W Finney
1Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Center for Health Care Evaluation, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. crosen@stanford.edu
Aims:
This study assesses the viability of a self-administered version of the Addiction Severity Index for monitoring substance abuse patients' functioning.
Design And Measurements:
Patients completed the ASI interview and a self-administered questionnaire containing ASI composite items an average of 4 days apart. Composite scores from both formats were compared using correlations and mean differences.
Participants And Setting:
Participants were 316 veterans entering substance abuse treatment in a US Department of Veterans Affairs medical center.
Findings:
Composite scores for alcohol, drug, psychiatric, family, legal and employment problems correlated 0.59-0.87 across formats. Patients endorsed more drug use and psychiatric symptoms by questionnaire than by interview. Medical composite scores correlated only 0.47 across formats.
Conclusions:
This study and previous research suggest that a self-administered questionnaire can be a feasible alternative to ASI interviews for monitoring substance abuse patients' treatment outcomes.