PREDICTIVE-VALIDITY OF THE READINESS TO CHANGE QUESTIONNAIRE

Following the development of the Readiness to Change Questionnaire des cribed by Rollnick et al.,1 this article reports on the predictive val idity of the questionnaire among a sample of 174 male excessive drinke rs identified by screening on wards of general hospitals. Relationship s between patients' ''stage of change'' derived from questionnaires ad ministered prior to discharge from hospital and changes in drinking be haviour at 8 weeks and 6 months follow-up are analysed Allocated stage of change provided statistically significant relationships with drink ing outcome. Multiple regression analysis showed that stage of change remained a significant predictor of changes in alcohol consumption whe n other possible predictors were taken into account. Two methods for a llocating stage of change on the basis of questionnaire responses for use in different circumstances, a ''quick'' and a ''refined'' method, are described.