LONGITUDINAL EVALUATION OF A SCREENING MEASURE FOR PROBLEM DRINKING AMONG FEMALE COLLEGE-FRESHMEN

Objective: A previous study suggested that combining the CAGE (cutting down of drinking, feeling annoyed by criticisms of drinking, feeling guilty about something that happened because of drinking, having an ey e-opener) questionnaire with the Perceived-Benefit-of-Drinking Scale, an adolescent's use of tobacco, the age at which an adolescent first s tarted drinking, and an adolescent's best friend's drinking pattern is a useful composite screening measure for problem drinking among adole scents. The present study was undertaken to evaluate prospectively thi s composite screening measure as a predictor of subsequent problem dri nking among college women during their freshman year. Design: Cross-se ctional. Setting: Private university student health service. Participa nts: A random sample of 248 college freshman women entered a longitudi nal study of alcohol use at the beginning of their freshman year. One hundred twenty (48%) completed follow-up measures of alcohol use at th e end of the year. Respondents were 90% white, with a mean age of 17.9 years (SD=0.5 years). Interventions: None. Main Outcome Measures: An index of the quantity and frequency of alcohol use and a composite mea sure of specific alcohol-related problems. Results: The CAGE questionn aire score, the Perceived-Benefit-of-Drinking Scale score, the student 's tobacco use, the student's best friend's drinking pattern, and the age at which the student first started drinking as reported at the beg inning of the year together explained 38% of the variance in subsequen t drinking habits and 26% of the variance in alcohol-related problems reported during the freshman year. Use of the composite screening meas ure significantly increased sensitivity and specificity beyond that ob tained with the CAGE questionnaire or the Perceived-Benefit-of-Drinkin g Scale alone for problem drinking. Conclusions: The CAGE questions, t he Perceived-Benefit-of-Drinking Scale, the student's tobacco use, the student's best friend's drinking pattern, and the age at which the st udent first started drinking may together constitute a clinically usef ul screening measure for subsequent problem drinking among female coll ege freshmen.