Validity of the Paddington Alcohol Test in an Australian Emergency Department†

The aim of this study was to validate a modified version of the Paddington Alcohol Test for use in the Australian emergency department (ED) setting.

A cross sectional survey was used to screen patients attending an Australian tertiary hospital ED. Data were collected over a three-month period at randomly allocated time periods and days. Consenting participants were screened using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and a modified-for-Australia version of the Paddington Alcohol Test (AusPAT). The association between the two tools was investigated, as well as the sensitivity and specificity of AusPAT at various AUDIT cut-off scores and by gender and age group.

The sample comprised 637 ED attendees. Their mean age was 49.9 (SD 20.0) years with a mean AUDIT score of 5.21 (SD 6.58). Most (73.2%) consumed alcohol, and a quarter was AusPAT-positive (n = 153, 24.0%). AusPAT demonstrated a moderate fit with AUDIT at a cut-off score of 8 (Kappa = 0.63, P < 0.001). At this cut-off 23.4% (n = 149) were identified by AUDIT as problematic drinkers. AusPAT sensitivity was 72.5% (95% CI 65.3-79.7) with a specificity of 90.8% (95% CI 88.3-93.4).

Our results indicate that AusPAT was moderately well associated with AUDIT. When used universally in the ED setting, its sensitivity and specificity were moderate.