TRAINING FOR AND MAINTAINING INTERVIEWER CONSISTENCY WITH THE ASI

A short quiz of Addiction Severity Index (ASI) coding conventions was developed to identify coding inconsistencies within a large group of t rained interviewers, as one step in an overall program of quality assu rance monitoring. Problem items, in which less than 75% of the quiz re spondents answered correctly, existed in almost every ASI section. The A SI quiz has proven helpful in identifying ''drift ''from the ASI st andard procedures. Individually reviewing the results of the quiz with the respondents helped to reinforce the recognized coding rules. The authors discuss a system-wide quality assurance program for maintainin g interviewer consistency. It is believed that coding convention measu res of this type could be useful in the maintenance of standards in ot her research interviews and procedures.