[Validation of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) in primary care]

The results of the validation for the AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) in Primary Care are here reported. A total of 326 patients who attended two primary care centers were interviewed. In a first interview they answered the AUDIT questions and later were classified on the basis of disturbances caused by alcohol use: abuse or dependency. The diagnosis of abuse or dependency was obtained with the structured interview for DSM-III-R. Reliability was determined by the test-retest correlation and internal consistency by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Efficacy was calculated by means of the area under the curve (receiver operating characteristics). A quarter of the interviewed patients were diagnosed of some disturbance caused by alcohol use. The internal reliability of the test was acceptable (Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.86). The test-retest correlation coefficient was 0.90. All the questions acceptably correlated with the total in the scale. A cut-off point of 8 was the most efficient for the whole sample (90% sensitivity and 90% specificity). For females, the most efficient cut-off point was 6. For patients aged over 60 years, the most efficient cut-off point was 5 for both sexes. This study confirms the usefulness of AUDIT for screening alcohol-related problems in Primary Care.