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Validation of a multisubstance online Timeline Followback assessment
Renée Martin-Willett1, Timothy Helmuth1, Median Abraha1
1The University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado.
Objectives:
The Timeline Followback (TLFB) was originally developed to assess alcohol consumption patterns (American Journal of Public Health, 86, 1996, 966) and has been increasingly modified for Web-based use. Additionally, new modes of substance use administration have emerged, creating a need for an adaptable TLFB tool than can capture data such as cannabis product potency or prescription drug use. Our goal was to validate an online TLFB that reliably assesses a wide range of substances in greater detail.
Methods:
Using a within-subjects counterbalanced design, daily substance use data were collected from 50 college students over a 14-day retrospective period using both the traditional in-person TLFB and online TLFB (O-TLFB).
Results:
All substance use variables, including detailed measures of cannabis metrics, correlated significantly (r's ranged from .653 to .944, p < .001) between TLFB versions. Further, results demonstrated that both the online TLFB and in-person TLFB demonstrated concurrent validity with both the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Marijuana Dependence Scale (MDS).
Conclusion:
Overall, the data suggest that this new O-TLFB demonstrates strong reliability and delivers a versatile and secure tool for substance use assessment that is relevant to a variety of biomedical and psychological research contexts.
