Identification of hazardous/harmful drinking among subcritically injured patients

To examine the relationship between a saliva alcohol test (SAT) and hazardous/harmful drinking, as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), among a sample of subcritically injured patients.

Patients (n = 78) seeking treatment for a subcritical injury were saliva-tested for alcohol and interviewed regarding their drinking behaviors and related difficulties. Associations of SAT values with AUDIT results were determined.

SAT results and hazardous/harmful drinking were not independent events (p < 0.001). Estimates of sensitivity and specificity (using a dichotomous SAT result [> or = 4 mmol/L] to identify positive AUDIT patients) were 65.2% and 83.6%, respectively. SAT-positive people had significantly higher AUDIT scores than did SAT-negative individuals (p < 0.0001). Patients experiencing assault-type injuries were much more likely to be SAT-positive than were patients incurring other types of injury. Discriminant function analysis suggests that AUDIT scores can successfully identify SAT-positive and SAT-negative patients; the analysis accounted for 42.5% of the variance and correctly classified 84.6% of the sample.

The use of an easy-to-administer, noninvasive, routine SAT, among patients presenting for a subcritical injury in a hospital ED, provides a mechanism for the identification of individuals with a history of hazardous/harmful drinking. However, since discrimination of hazardous/harmful drinking is imperfect, some caution is warranted when conducting such screening activities.