Cross-cultural evaluation of two drinking assessment instruments: Alcohol timeline followback and inventory of drinking situations

This article describes the psychometric characteristics of two major assess ment instruments used in a World Health Organization (WHO) clinical trial: (a) Alcohol Timeline Followback (TLFB, which assesses daily drinking patter ns), and (b) Inventory of Drinking Situations (IDS, which assesses antecede nts to "heavy" drinking). Clients (N = 308) were outpatient alcohol abusers from four countries (Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Sweden). Generally, th e Alcohol TLFB and IDS were shown to be reliable and valid with outpatient alcohol abusers in four countries. and in three languages. These results su ggest that the Alcohol TLFB and the IDS can be used in clinical and researc h settings with Swedish-, Spanish-, and English-speaking alcohol abusers.