ArticleAddiction science & clinical practice2017
Validation of the AUDIT-C in adults seeking help with their drinking online.
Article in Addiction science & clinical practice, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers.
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Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed.
- A pilot randomized controlled trial of Kisoboka, a behavioral economic and motivational interviewing intervention to reduce high-risk alcohol use and improve antiretroviral therapy adherence for men in Uganda.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Trial
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- Predictors and consequences of unplanned drinking among young adults.Addictive behaviors · 2025Trial
- Smartphone-Based Intervention Targeting Norms and Risk Perception Among University Students with Unhealthy Alcohol Use: Secondary Mediation Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Trial
- A randomized controlled experiment testing the use of virtual reality to trigger cigarette craving in people who smoke.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Effect of a smartphone intervention as a secondary prevention for use among university students with unhealthy alcohol use: randomised controlled trial.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Trial
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- A Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Two Patient-Centered Interventions for Women with Unmet Social Needs: Personalized Support for Progress and Enhanced Screening and Referral.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2020Trial
- Predictive validity of Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test - Consumption (AUDIT-C) for register-based alcohol-attributable events among general-population men and women of different ages.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Association between inpatient AUDIT-C alcohol screening scores and postoperative outcomes: a retrospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Lifetime sexual violence and tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use among French adults: A national survey.Preventive medicine reports · 2026Article
- Sex Differences in the Association Between Drinking Motives, Protective Behavioral Strategies, and Alcohol Outcomes in a Hazardous Drinking College Sample.Substance use & misuse · 2026Article
- Epidemiology of alcohol use and alcohol use disorders among the population of Buea, south west region, Cameroon: A survey study.Global epidemiology · 2026Article
- Child maltreatment and substance use: associations with alcohol use, nicotine use, and quality of life in a Norwegian population sample.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Concerned significant others of persons with problem gambling and problem gaming: Prevalence and characteristics in the Norwegian population.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Article
- Hypertension and alcohol: a cross-sectional study comparing PEth with AUDIT and AUDIT-C in primary care.Family practice · 2025Observational
- Combining family history and alcohol screening measures to identify emerging adults at risk of not being in education, employment, or training (NEET).Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Alcohol Use Disorder and HIV Risk in a National Survey of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Ukraine.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- A longitudinal analysis on alcohol consumption in patients with cancer undergoing psycho-oncological treatment.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Screening for Alcohol Use Disorder Among Hospitalised Patients: Learning from a Retrospective Cohort Study in Secondary Care.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe abbreviated Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test for Consumption (AUDIT-C) is rapidly becoming the alcohol screening tool of choice for busy practitioners in clinical settings and by researchers keen to limit assessment burden and reactivity. Cut-off scores for detecting drinking above recommended limits vary by population, setting, country and potentially format. This validation study aimed to determine AUDIT-C thresholds that indicated risky drinking among a population of people seeking help over the Internet.
methodThe data in this study were collected in the pilot phase of the Down Your Drink trial, which recruited people seeking help over the Internet and randomised them to a web-based intervention or an information-only website. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were calculated for AUDIT-C scores, relative to weekly consumption that indicated drinking above limits and higher risk drinking. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were created to assess the performance of different cut-off scores on the AUDIT-C for men and women. Past week alcohol consumption was used as the reference-standard and was collected via the TOT-AL, a validated online measure of past week drinking.
resultsAUDIT-C scores were obtained from 3720 adults (2053 female and 1667 male) searching the internet for help with drinking, mostly from the UK. The area under the ROC curve for risky drinking was 0.84 (95% CI 0.80, 0.87) (female) and 0.80 (95% CI 0.76, 0.84) (male). AUDIT-C cut-off scores for detecting risky drinking that maximise the sum of sensitivity and specificity were ≥8 for women and ≥8 for men; whereas those identifying the highest proportion of correctly classified individuals were ≥4 for women and ≥5 for men. AUDIT-C cut-off scores for detecting higher risk drinking were also calculated.
conclusionsAUDIT-C cut-off scores for identifying alcohol consumption above weekly limits in this largely UK based study population were substantially higher than those reported in other validation studies. Researchers and practitioners should select AUDIT-C cut-off scores according to the purpose of identifying risky drinkers and hence the relative importance of sensitivity and/or specificity.
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