Readiness to change questionnaire: Reliability study of its Spanish version

The present study explored the reliability and validity of a Spanish versio n of the Readiness to Change Questionnaire (RCQ) (12-item short form) as it might be used for opportunistic intervention. The test has three scales to allocate patients to a stage of change: pre-contemplation (P), contemplati on (C) or action (A). The RCQ was translated and back-translated prior to p ilot administration to 15 patients. From two settings (a general hospital w ard and a primary health care centre), 201 patients were identified as exce ssive drinkers on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Patients k nown to be alcohol-dependent and attending for alcohol-related reasons were excluded. Patients completed the RCQ. Test-retest reliability after 2 days was assessed in 35 patients. A components analysis was performed. Patients were classified on RCQ scores to a stage of change. Two experts separately interviewed the patients and made an allocation to stage of change, blind to the RCQ score. Test-retest reliability was good (P: r = 0.81; C: r = 0.8 7; A: r = 0.86). Within the three scales, RCQ items showed fair consistency in terms of Cronbach's alpha (P: 0.58, C: 0.75, A: 0.80). Component analys is showed that together the scales accounted for 57.4% of the variance. The experts agreed between themselves on patients' stage of change (weighted k appa 0.92) but much less with the stage of change according to RCQ (expert A, kappa = 0.44; expert B, kappa = 0.52). Omitting patients with low consum ption did not improve internal reliability, and omitting those with low edu cational level who might have filled in the questionnaire wrongly did not i mprove internal reliability or agreement between RCQ and the experts. We co nclude that the Spanish RCQ did not function efficiently in a population of opportunistically identified excessive drinkers.