Assessing parental alcoholism: A comparison of the Family History ResearchDiagnostic Criteria versus a single-question method

This study compares two methods of determining parental alcoholism: (1) a s ingle question asking whether one of the subject's parents had alcohol prob lems; (2) the Family History Research Diagnostic Criteria (FH-RDC), which r equire at least one alcohol-related problem in addition to parental problem drinking. We sought first to determine the level of agreement between the single-question approach and the full FH-RDC for parental alcoholism, and t hen to gauge how much bias will be introduced by using the single question rather than the FH-RDC-method in assessing the risk for psychiatric disorde rs. Data were taken from the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS), a nationwid e survey of the noninstitutionalized US civilian population aged 15 to 54. Parental alcoholism was assessed both by the single question and by the ful l FH-RDC. Psychiatric disorders were assessed with the Composite Internatio nal Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Good agreement was found between the singl e-question approach and the FH-RDC (k=0.83). The single-question method int roduces only a small downward bias when it comes to assessing the risk for psychiatric disorders in children of alcoholic probands. This underestimati on does not reach statistical significance. When a questionnaire needs to b e shortened, a single question on parental problem drinking is a good alter native to checking all individual FH-RDC items. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science L td. All rights reserved.