Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test

The World Health Organization developed the AUDIT questionnaire, which is designed to detect people with risky alcohol consumption (see Appendix). AUDIT consists of ten questions that represent the three major conceptual domains of intake (Questions 1 to 3), dependence (Questions 4 to 6) and problems (Questions 7 to 10). It effectively distinguishes between risky and non-risky people who drink, identifies dependent people who drink, and has cross-cultural validity. It is short (10 items), may be self-administered, and is suitable for primary health care settings. 

AUDIT has demonstrated validity among a wide range of patient populations, including those attending primary care settings, adolescents, drug-dependent patients, cross-cultural groups, drink–drivers, emergency ward patients, psychiatric patients, and pregnant women. AUDIT performs as well as the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) and the CAGE for identifying dependent drinking, and has higher sensitivity and specificity for harmful and hazardous drinking. Scores of 8 or more indicate presumptive harmful or hazardous alcohol consumption, and a score of 15 or more suggests the need to assess for alcohol dependence.  

A shortened version of AUDIT – AUDIT-C – consists of only alcohol consumption Questions 1 to 3 (Table 4.1). It has been used successfully to detect DSM-5 alcohol use disorder in samples drawn from US college students and the general adult population of Germany. A score of 5 or more indicates further assessment is required. 

The third question of the AUDIT taken alone (AUDIT-3) has been shown to have almost as good sensitivity and specificity as the longer forms.