Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT)
Use the AUDIT Alcohol Screening Test developed by the World Health Organization to screen people who have a possible alcohol use disorder (AUD) or those who are at risk of developing AUD.
Fact Checked by Nate Lacson.
What is the Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT)?
The AUDIT Alcohol Screening Test is a useful screening tool that was developed by the World Health Organization. It is used to determine if a person who is suspected of having an alcohol use disorder (AUD) actually has one or is at risk of developing one.
It comes in the form of a ten-item questionnaire that asks the following questions:
- How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?
- How many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking?
- How often do you have five or more drinks on one occasion?
- How often during the last year have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started?
- How often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of drinking?
- How often during the last year have you needed a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?
- How often during the last year have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking?
- How often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because of your drinking?
- Have you or someone else been injured because of your drinking?
- Has a relative, friend, doctor, or other health care worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested you cut down?
The first three questions focus on the person’s frequency of consuming alcohol as well as the amount they usually consume.
The fourth question up to the sixth seeks to determine if a person has developed a dependence on alcohol.
The remaining questions revolve around how alcohol has impacted the person in terms of negative feelings they feel when they drink, if their drinking has caused harm to themself or others, and if others have started to express concern for their alcohol consumption.
Printable Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT)
Download this Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT) to evaluate your client’s feelings of hopelessness.
How to use the Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT):
Have the patient answer it.
You can administer the test in two ways. You can either hand a copy to the patient and have them answer the questionnaire on their own, or you can conduct it in an interview format. This involves asking them the questions and prompting them with the possible answers they can give.
Either way, the patient simply needs to answer with one out of five possible answers (or one out of three possible answers because the last two questions only have three choices).
Questions 1, 3 to 8 have the following choices:
- Never
- Less than monthly
- Monthly
- Weekly
- Daily or almost daily
Question 2 has the following:
- 0-2
- 3 or 4
- 5 or 6
- 7-9
- 10 or more
While the last two questions only have three choices:
- No
- Yes, but not in the last year
- Yes, in the last year
After the questionnaire, there will be one last question. This one will not be included in the scoring, which will be discussed below.
The last question is “Have you ever been in treatment for an alcohol problem?” They only need to answer with any of the following:
- Never
- Currently
- In the past
Tally the scores.
Now, speaking of scores, a patient may score anything from 0 to 4, depending on their answers. You will see the assigned scores per answer on the actual sheet.
Once you have a fully-accomplished questionnaire, you simply need to tally the score and then determine the score range that it falls under.
The score ranges are organized by risk zone. Here are the ranges:
Go with the course of action recommender for the zone your patient falls on.
The Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT) is more than just a questionnaire. It provides suggested actions for you to take depending on the specific zone that your patient falls under after completing the questionnaire.
You may refer to the following:
Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT) Example
Based on what we have discussed so far about the Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT), we are sure that you will find it to be straightforward and easy to use. After all, answering the questionnaire and scoring the patient is easy enough, plus, there are recommended actions for numerous score ranges.
Now that you are aware of what the test is like, it is best for you to see a filled-out Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT) sample:
If you like what you see here and you think this will benefit your work, feel free to download a printable version of the Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT) via our platform! The PDF has editable portions to reflect the answers, so if you want to go paperless, you can simply tick the answers and indicate the score!
Download this Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT) Example (Sample) here:
When does one typically administer the Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT)?
Healthcare practitioners normally administer this test whenever a person self-reports that they feel they are at risk of developing an alcohol use disorder or they already have one. This may also be administered if someone else reports that person and the person in question shows up to be screened.
This test is also used by practitioners who conduct routine examinations as part of a larger comprehensive assessment that covers numerous bases. This is normally used alongside other tools because it is used to check if a person’s alcohol use is related to another condition.
Rehabilitation programs also use this to monitor someone’s progress with alcohol detoxification, as well as to help determine what goes into a person’s treatment plan and rehabilitation process.
Who can use this Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT) and for whom is it?
The AUDIT Screening Test can be used by numerous healthcare professionals. The following professionals, among others, may use this valuable screening tool:
- Rehabilitation specialists
- Addiction specialists
- Primary care physicians
- Nurses
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
As long as alcohol may be involved in affecting a person’s condition, or if an alcohol use disorder is the main problem, this can be used to assess the patient.
Ultimately, this test was developed for the benefit of the patient because the test comes with directives that healthcare professionals can use in order to determine what would help the patient based on the severity zone they are in.
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Why use Carepatron for rehabilitation-related software?
If you specialize in rehabilitating patients for their addictions, then you would be happy to know that Carepatron is a wonderful platform to get rehabilitation-related software to help you with your work!
We house a wide variety of worksheets, assessments, surveys, and even general treatment plan templates that will help you streamline your work and make your coverage more comprehensive. One such example is the Alcohol Screening Test (AUDIT)! If you are making a comprehensive examination of a patient, you can definitely use this alongside other assessments to get a well-rounded view of your patient’s complications as well as help you make better-informed decisions when it comes to creating treatment plans!
If you decide to use this test, then you should also consider using Carepatron to help you create online backups of fully-accomplished tests! We are more than just a trove of clinical documentation. We also have an awesome and highly secure storage system that lets users store their clinical documents in a HIPAA-compliant manner. So if you have fully-accomplished tests that you want to store, you can do so via our platform. You may even set up who can access them besides you!
Storing them via our platform also makes them easily accessible anytime, anywhere. So long as you have capable devices (smartphones count!) as well as internet access, you can access the files you stored.
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Commonly asked questions
AUDIT means Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test.
It is currently available in 40 languages. Besides English, it is available in Arabic. Bulgarian, Bengali, Burmese, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified, Traditional, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino (Tagalog), Finnish, French (including Canadian French), German (Lubeck and Munster), Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Italian, Karen, Korean, Malay, Marathi, Mongolian, Norwegian, Northern Sami, Polish, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish (including Ecuadorian and Mexican), Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.
Yes. If you take this test on your own and you score high, please make sure to report yourself to the nearest doctor that specializes in dealing with alcohol use disorders to get the treatment you need to curb a developing disorder and eliminate symptoms as early as possible. Don’t be afraid to go to a doctor about this. They will be more than happy to accommodate you in a judgment-free zone.
