Screening for alcohol abuse using the cage questionnaire

We sought to identify the prevalence and factors associated with alcohol abuse among farmers living in a medium-sized municipality in northeastern Brazil during 2019 and 2020. Trained interviewers applied the standardized questionnaire to 450 participants. Sociodemographic, health, income and work characteristics were investigated. The tracking of alcohol misuse was done using the CAGE questionnaire (Cut down, Annoyed by criticism, Guilty and Eye-opener), being the cut-off point ≥ 2. Poisson Regression was applied with robust estimation to verify the reasons of prevalence (RP) in bivariate and multivariate analysis. The prevalence of alcohol abuse among farmers was 32% (95% CI 27.8–36.4). Factors such as being male, having a diagnosis of mental disorder in the family, being a smoker, and using drugs were associated with the higher prevalence of the outcome. Being 60 years old or older was associated with a lower prevalence of alcohol abuse. These results indicate the need for social support to this group of workers in the context of occupational health.

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Analysis of cut-off points for the CAGE Questionnaire for alcohol abuse

2001 Conference Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society ◽

10.1109/iembs.2001.1019702 ◽

2005 ◽

Author(s):

M.T. Taner ◽

A. Guvenis

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Abuse ◽

Cage Questionnaire

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Validity of the CAGE questionnaire in hospital

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2004.06.027 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 20 (7) ◽

pp. 484-489 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Laurent Malet ◽

Raymund Schwan ◽

Didier Boussiron ◽

Bruno Aublet-Cuvelier ◽

Pierre-Michel Llorca

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Use ◽

Alcohol Abuse ◽

English Language ◽

Alcohol Use Disorders ◽

Alcohol Problems ◽

Alcohol Abusers ◽

Eye Opening ◽

Dsm Iv ◽

Cage Questionnaire ◽

Hospital Morbidity

AbstractObjectiveThe CAGE questionnaire is considered a useful screening and case-finding tool for alcohol use disorders in clinical populations. Our objectives were to validate the French version of the CAGE against DSM-IV criteria and to assess performance of each item of the scale.MethodData were extracted from a hospital morbidity study conducted in central France. It concerned 5452 patients—48.5% men—in short and medium-stay units. Patients answered the CAGE questionnaire as a past-year assessment. The alcohol use disorders were diagnosed by the physicians using DSM-IV alcohol abuse or dependency criteria.ResultsThe CAGE questionnaire for a cut-off of 2 had a sensitivity of 77% and a specificity of 94%. The CAGE test was more sensitive for patients diagnosed as alcohol-dependent than for alcohol abusers (61% vs. 84%) with the same specificity (94%). These values are close to those for the English-language CAGE. The first three items (CAG) were very similar, with sensitivity 70% and specificity 94%. The eye-opening question (E) differentiated sharply between abuse and dependency, with sensitivities of 18% and 46%, respectively. A questionnaire comprising only the CAG questions of the CAGE had properties similar to the full questionnaire.ConclusionCAGE is a good screening tool for alcohol abuse or alcohol dependency. Given the frequent—and insufficiently diagnosed—alcohol problems among inpatients, CAGE is indicated as a first-line tool for screening for the most severe alcohol use disorders in hospital. It should ideally be used systematically. A positive reply to any of the first three items should alert the clinician and prompt further investigation.

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Reassessment of the CAGE questionnaire by ROC/Taguchi methods

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care ◽

10.1017/s0266462304001035 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 242-246 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Mehmet Tolga Taner ◽

Jiju Antony

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Abuse ◽

Diagnostic Accuracy ◽

Problem Drinking ◽

General Medicine ◽

Roc Curves ◽

Taguchi Methods ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Dependent Relation ◽

Cage Questionnaire ◽

Treatment Settings

Objectives: The clinical assessment efficiency of the CAGE questionnaire for alcohol abuse based on diagnostic accuracy has not been fully established to date because of the varied and inconclusive gold standards used as diagnostic criteria. CAGE has also been highlighted to miss almost half of the risk-drinkers due to the use of inadequetly set criteria for the positive recognition of alcohol abuse. This study aims to establish the diagnostic accuracy of CAGE at different treatment settings.Methods: A hybrid of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and the Taguchi method was used, as this approach proved to evaluate the diagnostic performance and accuracy in hypothetical clinical settings. Data were used from three cross-clinical treatment settings, i.e., general medicine outpatients, medical inpatients, and psychiatric inpatients, and analyzed by means of a step-wise application of managable number of statistical indices such as the area under the ROC curve (AUC), leveling factor (p′), and signal-to-noise ratios (S/N; standardized S/N [SS/N]).Results: The selected settings yielded similar AUCs but portrayed different trade-offs on the ROC curves signaling the presence of different critical CAGE scores. Analysis of the sensitivity and specificity data of i, ii, iii by p′, S/N, SS/N and their dependent relation resulted in the critical CAGE scores of 1,1, and 2; and high diagnostic accuracy levels of 76.84 percent, 86 percent, and 76.84 percent, respectively.Conclusions: By setting these critical CAGE scores as the minimum detection levels of alcohol abuse, early intervention before the onset of serious alcohol-related problems is possible. This will decrease the health-care costs of the patient and, in addition, reduce the psychological and social burdens inherent to alcohol abuse both on the patient and society. Having its critical scores reliably identified and diagnostic accuracy fully determined, CAGE can now improve the detection rate of problem drinking individuals substantially.

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Validity of the CAGE questionnaire in schizophrenic patients with alcohol abuse and dependence

Schizophrenia Research ◽

10.1016/j.schres.2005.09.012 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 81 (2-3) ◽

pp. 151-155 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Alain Dervaux ◽

Franck J. Baylé ◽

Xavier Laqueille ◽

Marie-Chantal Bourdel ◽

Michèle Leborgne ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Abuse ◽

Schizophrenic Patients ◽

Cage Questionnaire ◽

Alcohol Abuse And Dependence

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Alcohol consumption in Austrian physicians

Annals of General Psychiatry ◽

10.1186/s12991-019-0246-2 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Edda Pjrek ◽

Leo Silberbauer ◽

Siegfried Kasper ◽

Dietmar Winkler

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

General Population ◽

Alcohol Abuse ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Telephone Survey ◽

Health Consequences ◽

Problematic Alcohol ◽

Cage Questionnaire ◽

Drunk Alcohol

Abstract Background Alcohol is one of the leading exogenous causes for adverse health consequences in Europe. The aim of the present study was to examine the pattern of alcohol consumption in Austrian physicians. Methods A telephone survey was conducted in 400 office-based physicians in Austria. Our questionnaire included the four questions of the CAGE questionnaire and questions to assess alcohol consumption on the previous day. Results 131 participants (32.8%) completed the interview. 3.8% of the subjects had a CAGE score of 2 or higher indicating a problem with alcohol, but this rate was not statistically different from numbers reported for the general population (4.1%). 46.6% of our subjects had drunken alcohol on the previous day. Compared to the general population, the rate of having drunk alcohol yesterday was higher in both gender of our sample, but the amount of alcohol drunk was significantly lower. Doctors in rural areas had drunken alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities on the previous day than those in urban areas. There was a positive correlation between age and the amount of drinking on the previous day, and between age and CAGE scores. Furthermore, subjects who had consumed alcohol yesterday obtained higher scores on the CAGE. Conclusions Our findings indicate that the rate of Austrian physicians with problematic alcohol consumption is similar to the general population. Physicians in rural areas and older doctors might be of higher risk for alcohol abuse.

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Quantity Frequency (Consumption Index) versus “Cage” in the Detection of Alcoholism

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.3109/00048679209072076 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 493-501 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Saroja Krishnaswamy Indran

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Abuse ◽

General Hospital ◽

Psychiatric Diagnosis ◽

Screening Test ◽

Kuala Lumpur ◽

Poor Agreement ◽

Consumption Index ◽

Excessive Alcohol ◽

Cage Questionnaire ◽

Alcohol Abuse And Dependence

The aim of this study was to compare and validate two simple methods of detecting excessive alcohol drinkers in a Malaysian hospital population. All 621 patients in the Medical, Surgical and Orthopaedic units of the General Hospital Kuala Lumpur were screened with the “CAGE” Questionnaire (a four question screening test to discriminate excessive drinkers) and two questions on the frequency and quantity of drinking called the Consumption Index. All CAGE scores had poor agreement (K = 0.37 to K = 0.1) with a psychiatric diagnosis of alcohol abuse and dependence using DSM III diagnosis. Reasons why the Consumption Index is a better screening instrument than the CAGE are discussed.

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