Usefulness of Heavy Drinking and Binge Drinking for the Diagnosis of Alcohol Use Disorder

This research investigated the sensitivity and specificity of heavy and binge drinking for screening of alcohol use disorder.

This retrospective study was conducted with 976 adults who visited the Sun Health Screening Center for health screenings in 2015. Daily drinking amount, drinking frequency per week, and weekly drinking amount were investigated. Using criteria from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, participants were classified as normal drinkers, heavy drinkers, or binge drinkers, and grouped by age and sex. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of heavy and binge drinking were compared for the diagnosis of alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 4th edition-text revision and alcohol use disorder using the DSM 5th edition.

The sensitivity of heavy and binge drinking for the diagnosis of alcohol abuse, alcohol dependence, and alcohol use disorder were 51.7%, 43.8%, and 35.3%, and 69.0%, 62.5%, and 48.2%, respectively. The specificity of these were 90.1%, 91.7%, and 95.5%, and 84.3%, 86.8%, and 91.2%, respectively. The PPV of these were 24.8%, 40.5%, and 72.7%, and 21.7%, 38.0%, and 65.2%, respectively. The NPV of these were 96.7%, 92.6%, and 81.2%, and 97.8%, 94.7%, and 83.7%, respectively.

Heavy and binge drinking did not show enough diagnostic power to screen DSM alcohol use disorder although they did show high specificity and NPV.