Summary:
Introduction Short screenings of alcohol-related
dependence are needed for population-based
assessments. A clinical interview constitutes a reliable
diagnosis often seen as gold standard, but it is costly
and time consuming and as such, not suitable for
population-based assessments. Therefore, self-reported
questionnaires are needed (eg, alcohol use disorder
(AUD) as in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM) 5), but their reliability is questionable.
Recent studies called for more evidence-based
measurements for population-based screening (eg, heavy
alcohol use over time (HAU)). This study aims to test the
reliability of different self-reported measures of alcohol
use.
Methods and analysis Based on stratified random
selection, 280 participants will be recruited from the
French-speaking subgroup of the Swiss National Science
Foundation-supported Cohort Study on Substance Use and
Risk Factors (C-SURF). This cohort is a population-based
sample of young Swiss men in their mid-20s (n=2668).
The sample size calculation is based on a proportion
non-inferiority test (alpha=5%, power=80%, margin of
equivalence=10%, difference in sensitivity between selfreported
AUD and HAU=5%, correlation between AUD and
HAU=0.35, and drop-outs=15%). Assessment will include
a clinical interview as the gold standard of alcohol-related
dependence, self-reported alcohol measures (HAU, AUD
and drinking patterns), biomarkers as gold standards
of chronic excessive drinking, and health outcomes. To
assess the validity of the self-reported alcohol measures,
sensitivity analyses will be run. The associations between
alcohol-related measures and health outcomes will
be tested. A non-response analysis will be run using
the previous waves of the C-SURF study using logistic
regressions.
Ethics and dissemination The study protocol has been
approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the
Canton of Vaud, Switzerland (no. 2017–00776). The results
will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals
and presented at national and international conferences.