Validity of the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) for the detection of alcohol-related problems among male geriatric outpatients

Alcoholism is a frequent and underdiagnosed mental health problem of Eater life. Its detection often relies on the use of screening instruments such a s the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST). The authors investigated t he properties of the scale in a sample of 122 older adults recruited from a geriatric outpatient service in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Thirty-five subjects me t criteria for the diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence according to DS M-III-R. The cutoff point 4/5 was associated with a sensitivity of 91.4% sp ecificity, of 83.9%, and positive and negative predictive values of 69.6% a nd 96.0%, respectively. These results indicate that the MAST is a good scre ening test for the detection of alcohol abuse and dependence in an elderly male population and that the MAST should be used in combination with a ques tionnaire assessing the frequency-quantity of alcohol consumption to optimi ze the detection of cases and characterize their current drinking patterns.