Missed and inconsistent classification of current drinkers: results from the 2005 US National Alcohol Survey.

Aims: This study compares current 12-month drinkers who do not report drinking in the last 30 days with current drinkers who drank in the last 30 days and assesses possible misclassification errors from use of a 30-day consumption measure.

Design: Data are from the 2005 US National Alcohol Survey (n = 6919), a national household probability survey.

Setting: Telephone interviews were used to measure alcohol use and alcohol-related problems.

Reports of alcohol-related problems and alcohol dependence for demographic subgroups using interactive voice response versus telephone surveys: the 2005 US National Alcohol Survey.

Introduction And Aims: Interactive voice response (IVR), a computer-based interviewing technique, can be used within a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) survey to increase privacy and the accuracy of reports of sensitive attitudes and behaviours. Previous research using the 2005 National Alcohol Survey indicated no overall significant differences between IVR and CATI responses to alcohol-related problems and alcohol dependence. To determine if this result holds for demographic subgroups that could respond differently to modes of data collection, this study compares the prevalence rates of lifetime and last-year alcohol-related problems by gender, ethnicity, age and income subgroups obtained by IVR versus continuous CATI interviewing.

Alcohol-related injury and driving while intoxicated: a risk function analysis of two alcohol-related events in the 2000 and 2005 National Alcohol Surveys.

Background: National population data on risk of alcohol-related injury or driving while intoxicated (DWI) are scarce.

Objective: The association of alcohol-related injury and perceived DWI (PDWI) with both volume and pattern of consumption are examined in a merged sample of respondents from the 2000 and 2005 National Alcohol Surveys using risk function analysis.

Methods: Self-reported consumption patterns on 8,736 respondents who consumed at least one drink in the last 12 months were assessed as the average daily volume and frequency of consuming 5 or more (5+), 8 or more (8+), and 12 or more (12+) drinks in a day.

Tobacco, marijuana, and sensation seeking: comparisons across gay, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual groups.

This study examined patterns of smoked substances (cigarettes and marijuana) among heterosexuals, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals based on data from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey, a population-based telephone survey of adults in the United States. We also examined the effect of bar patronage and sensation seeking/impulsivity (SSImp) on tobacco and marijuana use. Sexual orientation was defined as lesbian or gay self-identified, bisexual self-identified, heterosexual self-identified with same-sex partners in the past 5 years, and exclusively heterosexual (heterosexual self-identified, reporting no same-sex partners).

Interactive voice response versus computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) surveys and sensitive questions: the 2005 National Alcohol Survey.

Objective: Interactive voice response (IVR), a computer-based interviewing technique in which respondents interact directly with a computerized system, can increase a sense of privacy and potentially a willingness to report putatively sensitive attitudes and behaviors more accurately. The purpose of this study was to compare the prevalence rates obtained by IVR with computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) for alcohol-related problems, physical and sexual abuse, and sexual orientation.

Method: As part of the data collection effort for the 2005 National Alcohol Survey, subsamples of respondents were randomly assigned to three groups: two IVR groups, each receiving an IVR module on either alcohol-related problems (n = 562) or on physical/sexual abuse and sexual orientation (n = 563), and control groups that did not receive IVR (n = 559).

Sexual orientation and alcohol use: identity versus behavior measures.

Background: Few population-based national studies include complete measures of alcohol consumption, alcohol-related problems, and sexual orientation. When measures of sexual orientation are included in alcohol surveys, typically only one measure is included. The purpose of this paper is to compare two ways of measuring sexual orientation and to explore the relationship of each measure with alcohol use and alcohol-related problems.

Addiction sciences and its psychometrics: the measurement of alcohol-related problems.

Aims: The focus of this paper is on psychometric issues related to the measurement of alcohol problems.

Methods: Taking a broad perspective, this paper first examines several issues around the use of instruments to provide diagnostic categories in surveys, including dimensionality, severity and alcohol consumption. Secondly, a discussion of some of the political issues surrounding measurement of alcohol problems is presented, including some of the conflicts that arise when the psychometric properties of commonly used instruments are questioned.

Concurrent and simultaneous drug and alcohol use: results of the 2000 National Alcohol Survey.

This study estimates the prevalence, assesses predictors and evaluates factors associated with concurrent and simultaneous use of drugs and alcohol in the United States population. Using data from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey (n=7612), respondents were asked if they used specific drugs in the last 12 months. Current drinkers who reported using each type of drug were asked if they used alcohol and the drug at the same time.

How many drinks does it take you to feel drunk? Trends and predictors for subjective drunkenness.

Aims: To describe and model the sources of the variation and trends in the meaning of subjective drunkenness.

Design: Trend analyses of three cross-sectional surveys.

Setting: US general population.

Maximum quantity consumed and alcohol-related problems: assessing the most alcohol drunk with two measures.

Purposes: The maximum amount of alcohol consumed on any day is an important indicator of problem drinking. This study examined the ability of 2 maximum measures, taken individually and in combination, to predict alcohol-related consequences and dependence symptoms.

Method: We analyzed data from 4,296 current drinkers who participated in the 2000 National Alcohol Survey (N10) and provided complete data on several alcohol measures.

Reports of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems among homosexual, bisexual and heterosexual respondents: results from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey.

Objective: Few population-based studies have explored differences in alcohol consumption by sexual orientation. This study examined the prevalence of abstinence, drinking, heavier drinking, alcohol-related problems, alcohol dependence and help-seeking among homosexual and bisexual women and men compared with heterosexuals.

Method: Data are from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey, a national population-based survey of adults (N = 7,612), a Random Digit Dialing telephone survey of all 50 states of the United States and Washington, DC.

Alcohol outlets and child physical abuse and neglect: applying routine activities theory to the study of child maltreatment.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine whether or not alcohol access in neighborhood areas is differentially related to substantiated reports of child physical abuse and neglect.

Method: This cross-sectional ecological study uses spatial regression procedures to examine the relationship between the number of bars, restaurants and off-premise outlets per population and rates of child physical abuse and neglect in 940 census tracts in California, while controlling for levels of social disorganization, population density and county of residence.

Results: The number of off-premise outlets per population was positively associated with rates of child physical abuse (b = 3.

Biomedicalization and alcohol studies: implications for policy.

The reduction of alcohol problems to genetic and biological processes is not new; however, biomedicalization is progressively dominating how alcohol issues are viewed in the U.S. This paper illustrates the process of biomedicalization in the alcohol field by examining: 1) the organizational move of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to the National Institutes of Health in 1992; 2) the emphasis on biomedical goals in NIAAA's five-year Strategic Plan; 3) increased NIAAA funding of biomedical research from 1990-2002; and, 4) trends in the growing proportion of biomedical information provided in NIAAA's Reports to Congress.

Using chart reviews to assess postpartum substance abuse. A pilot study.

The use of chart reviews to assess substance use one-year postpartum was examined in this pilot study by comparing interviews with chart reviews for 23 women assessed positive for risk during pregnancy. There was no indication that providers asked about alcohol use in 83 percent of the charts, drug use in 57 percent of the charts, and tobacco use in 26 percent of the charts. Few positive or negative matches between interviews and chart reviews were found because substance use was generally not noted.

Telephone versus in-person interviews for alcohol use: results of the 2000 National Alcohol Survey.

This study assesses differences in reports of alcohol use and alcohol-related harms using telephone and in-person interviews in a subsample of the 2000 National Alcohol Survey (NAS) (N = 411). Respondents were given a brief telephone interview which assessed their alcohol use and alcohol-related harms in the last 12 months followed by an in-person interview 2 months later that obtained the same data. Approximately 90% (n = 371) reported their drinking status consistently between interviews (277 current drinkers; 94 non-drinkers).

Definitions of drunkenness.

This study examined definitions of drunkenness in a general population using both quantitative and qualitative data. Using data from 1366 adult current drinkers from the 1995 National Alcohol Survey, frequency of drunkenness and number of drinks to feel drunk were compared. Qualitative data from 58 current drinkers were also examined to determine how they define drunkenness.

Defining 'current drinkers' in national surveys: results of the 2000 National Alcohol Survey.

Aims: The purpose of this study is to determine which respondents of national surveys who report low 'usual' past year drinking frequency, are unsure of their drinking frequency or refuse to answer, are misclassified either as 'current drinkers' or as 'ex-drinkers.'

Design And Setting: The data are from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey, a national household telephone probability sample of adults in all 50 US States and Washington, DC (n = 7612).

Participants: A subsample of 1734 respondents who reported drinking 'less than once a month but at least once a year', 'less than once a year', 'refused' and 'don't knows' were also asked if they had consumed a whole drink of any alcoholic beverage in the 12 months using dates to anchor the question.