Methodology and Demographics of a Brief Adolescent Alcohol Screen Validation Study

• Published in: Pediatric emergency care Vol. 35; no. 11; p. 737
• Main Authors: Bromberg, Julie R, Spirito, Anthony, Chun, Thomas, Mello, Michael J, Casper, T Charles, Ahmad, Fahd, Bajaj, Lalit, Brown, Kathleen M, Chernick, Lauren S, Cohen, Daniel M, Fein, Joel, Horeczko, Tim, Levas, Michael N, McAninch, Brett, Monuteaux, Michael, Mull, Colette C, Grupp-Phelan, Jackie, Powell, Elizabeth C, Rogers, Alexander, Shenoi, Rohit P, Suffoletto, Brian, Vance, Cheryl, Linakis, James G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.11.2019
• Subjects: Adolescent; Child; Emergency Service, Hospital - statistics & numerical data; Female; Humans; Male; Mass Screening - methods; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (U.S.); Reproducibility of Results; Risk Assessment - methods; Surveys and Questionnaires; Underage Drinking - statistics & numerical data; United States; United States
• ISSN: 1535-1815
• DOI: 10.1097/PEC.0000000000001221

The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) 2-question alcohol screen within 16 Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network pediatric emergency departments. This article describes the study methodology, sample characteristics, and baseline outcomes of the NIAAA 2-question screen. Participants included 12- to 17-year-olds treated in one of the participating pediatric emergency departments across the United States. After enrollment, a criterion assessment battery including the NIAAA 2-question screen and other measures of alcohol, drug use, and risk behavior was self-administered by participants on a tablet computer. Two subsamples were derived from the sample. The first subsample was readministered the NIAAA 2-question screen 1 week after their initial visit to assess test-retest reliability. The second subsample is being reassessed at 12 and 24 months to examine predictive validity of the NIAAA 2-question screen. There were 4834 participants enrolled into the study who completed baseline assessments. Participants were equally distributed across sex and age. Forty-six percent of the participants identified as white, and 26% identified as black. Approximately one quarter identified as Hispanic. Using the NIAAA 2-question screen algorithm, approximately 8% were classified as low risk, 12% were classified as moderate risk, and 4% were classified as highest risk. Alcohol use was less likely to be reported by black participants, non-Hispanic participants, and those younger than 16 years. This study successfully recruited a large, demographically diverse sample to establish rates of the NIAAA screen risk categories across age, sex, ethnicity, and race within pediatric emergency departments.