Accurately Estimating Alcohol Consumption: A Comparison of Self-Administrated and Interview Methods

Area of Science:

• Addiction research
• Psychological assessment
• Public health

Background:

• Retrospective self-report of alcohol consumption relies on quantity-frequency (QF) and retrospective diary (RD) methods, each with limitations.
• The Typical and Atypical Drinking Diary (TADD) was developed to integrate the strengths of both QF and RD approaches.
• Existing methods like the Khavari Alcohol Test (KAT) and Timeline Follow-Back (TLFB) serve as benchmarks for alcohol consumption estimation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare alcohol consumption estimates derived from the TADD with those from the KAT (QF measure) and TLFB (RD measure).
• To test the hypothesis that TADD estimates would show a stronger correlation with TLFB estimates than KAT estimates.
• To evaluate the TADD's utility in capturing total alcohol consumption, drinking days, and heavy drinking episodes.

Main Methods:

• One hundred sixty-eight undergraduates (73% female) participated in the study.
• Participants provided retrospective self-report estimates of alcohol consumption over the preceding 12 weeks using TADD, KAT, and TLFB.
• Statistical analyses included correlation coefficients (r) and Z-scores to compare the strength of associations between measures.

Main Results:

• The TADD demonstrated a very strong correlation (r=0.83) with the TLFB for total alcohol consumption, significantly stronger than the KAT (r=0.66).
• TADD also showed strong correlations with TLFB for the number of drinking days (r=0.70) and heavy drinking episodes (r=0.77).
• Both TADD and KAT yielded higher estimates of alcohol consumption compared to the TLFB.

Conclusions:

• The TADD is a valid and reliable tool for estimating alcohol consumption, particularly effective in time-constrained research and clinical settings.
• The TADD's strong correlation with the TLFB supports its use as a viable alternative for assessing drinking patterns.
• Researchers and clinicians can confidently utilize the TADD for efficient and accurate retrospective alcohol consumption assessment.