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. 1996 Oct;86(10):1435–1439. doi: 10.2105/ajph.86.10.1435

Detecting risk drinking during pregnancy: a comparison of four screening questionnaires.

M Russell 1, S S Martier 1, R J Sokol 1, P Mudar 1, S Jacobson 1, J Jacobson 1
PMCID: PMC1380656  PMID: 8876514

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the efficacy of screening for risk drinking during pregnancy with two brief questionnaires, TWEAK and T-ACE. Both include an assessment of tolerance based on the number of drinks women report they can hold. METHODS: Subjects were disadvantaged African-American obstetric patients in Detroit, Mich. Traditional alcoholism screens (Michigan Alcohol Screening Test [MAST], CAGE) and the tolerance question were administered (n = 2717); TWEAK and T-ACE were constructed from tolerance and embedded MAST and CAGE items. In a separate sample (n = 1420), only the T-ACE was administered. Periconceptional risk drinking was the gold standard. Screen evaluations were based on receiver-operating characteristic analyses. RESULTS: At the cutpoint of 2, sensitivity/specificity for embedded screens were 91/77 for TWEAK and 88/79 for T-ACE; comparable values for T-ACE alone were 67/86. TWEAK and T-ACE screened more effectively than CAGE or MAST. CONCLUSIONS: Embedded versions of TWEAK and T-ACE were both highly sensitive to periconceptional risk drinking in this population. Administering T-ACE alone reduced its sensitivity; this suggests that MAST and CAGE administration improves its performance.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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