Screening for alcoholism among alcohol users in a traditional Arab Muslim society

The Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (S-MAST) was applied to 140 alcohol users in the traditional Muslim society of Kuwait. One hundred were confirmed alcoholics and 40 were self-disclosed social drinkers in the community. The questionnaire significantly discriminated between the groups. Its sensitivity level was 100% and its specificity 82.5%. Although all except one of the S-MAST items elicited significant differences between the groups in question, it appears that the particular sociocultural conditions of the setting may influence the validity of some of them.