U. Frick et al., CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION OF AN INDICAT OR FOR ALCOHOL-PROBLEMS FORTHE SWISS HEALTH SURVEY, Sozial- und Praventivmedizin, 41(3), 1996, pp. 133-142
A proposed scale for alcohol problems which consisted of five items wa
s psychometrically examined and validated. Latent class analysis was u
sed in addition to classic psychometric measures. The use of this scal
e in health surveys of the general population seems to be justified as
it offers a reliable and very economic method to measure alcohol indu
ced problems. It is therefore proposed that this scale should continue
to be used in future rounds of the Swiss Health Survey The context of
the questioning has to be taken into account when interpreting the su
mmary score, as items showed different patterns of response in persona
l vs interview questionnaires.