Abstract

CAMPO-ARIAS, Adalberto; BARROS-BERMUDEZ, Jaider Alfonso  and  RUEDA-JAIMES, Germán Eduardo. Psychometric Properties of the CAGE Questionnaire for Alcohol Abuse: Results of Three Analyses. rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2009, vol.38, n.2, pp.294-303. ISSN 0034-7450.

Introduction: The CAGE questionnaire is the scale most commonly used to identify abusive use of alcohol; however, many of its psychometric properties in the Colombian adult population are unknown. Objective: To determine the in-ternal consistency of the CAGE questionnaire among adult smokers and non-smokers who reported alcohol drinking within the last month, as well as its psychometric properties when compared with a structured clinical interview in a group of smokers from the general population of Bucaramanga, Colombia. Method: A validation study was designed for three groups within the general population. Internal consistency was calculated with Kuder-Richardson coeffcient, and the psychometric properties (sensitivity, specifcity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, Cohen’s kappa and area under receiver operating characteristic curve) were computed when CAGE was compared with a structured clinical interview among a sub-group of smokers. Results: The internal consistency was between 0.753 and 0.834. Among smokers, for the best cutoff point (2/4), the sensitivity was 66.7% (95%CI: 38.8-87.0); specifcity, 86.0% (95%CI: 73.7-93.3); positive predictive value, 55.6% (95%CI: 31.3-77.6); negative predictive value, 90.7% (95%CI: 78.9-96.5); positive likelihood ratio, 4.8; negative likelihood ratio, 0.39; Cohen’s kappa, 0.490 (95%CI: 0.253-0.727); and area under receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.805 (95%CI: 0.680-0.929). Conclusions: The CAGE questionnaire presents acceptable internal consistency, although among smokers it shows modest properties when compared with a clinical interview.

Keywords : Smoking; adult; validation studies.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )