Screening older, blue-collar workers for drinking problems: an assessment of the efficacy of the drinking problems index.

The authors examine the performance of the Drinking Problems Index (DPI) as a screening instrument for the identification of drinking problems among older blue-collar workers. Performance was assessed using a random sample of 1055 retirement-eligible blue-collar workers with the CAGE as a problem-drinking criterion. The authors also assessed the relative performance of the DPI versus the CAGE on the basis of each instrument's sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) with regard to other alcohol-related criteria. DPI was found to offer reasonable levels of sensitivity and specificity, although its sensitivity varied by age. Moreover, for older, blue-collar workers, the DPI was found to more effectively screen for problematic patterns of alcohol consumption than the CAGE.