To compare the clinical usefulness of four alcoholism-screening tests frequently used in Korea such as MAST, NAST, AUDIT, CAST, 96 drinking males were given diagnostic interviews based on DSM-IV criteria and scores from four tests were obtained and an...
To compare the clinical usefulness of four alcoholism-screening tests frequently used in Korea such as MAST, NAST, AUDIT, CAST, 96 drinking males were given diagnostic interviews based on DSM-IV criteria and scores from four tests were obtained and analyzed.
1. Of 96 subjects, 52.1% were without drinking problems, 38.5% with alcohol abuse and 9.4% with alcohol dependence.
2. In terms of reliability of items in screening tests, four tests, four items in MAST were not found to have statistically significant item-total correlation.
3. The appropriate cut-off value for screening tests to detect alcohol use disorders were above 15 points in AUDIT, above 5 points in MAST, above one item in NAST and above 2 ites in CAGE.
4. In terms of sensitivity for detection of alcohol use disorders, NAST was highest with 93.5%, and specificity, CAGE was highest with 90.0%. Considering the lowest sensitivity of 76.1% in CAGE and 76.0% of specificity in MAST, AUDIT and NAST were the most appropriate in screening alcohol abuse.
5. The appropriate standard values for screening alcohol dependence were above 26 points in AUDIT, above 13 points in MAST, above 5 items in NAST, and above 3 items in CAGE.
6. In screening alcohol dependence AUDIT had the highest sensitivity of 100.0%, and both AUDIT and NAST had the highest specificity of 94.3%, respectively. The sensitivity of three screening tools except AUDIT were the same with the value of 88.9% and therefore AUDIT were the most appropriate in detecting alcohol dependence taking into consideration the relatively low specificity of 85.1% in CAGE.