CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION OF AN INDICAT OR FOR ALCOHOL-PROBLEMS FORTHE SWISS HEALTH SURVEY

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.