Cross-Cultural Evaluation of Two Drinking Assessment Instruments: Alcohol Timeline Followback and Inventory of Drinking Situations

Abstract

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

Measuring Alcohol Consumption Using Timeline Followback in Non-Treatment-Seeking Medical Clinic Patients With and Without HIV Infection: 7-, 14-, or 30-day Recall

“…The TLFB was administered via telephone interview by trained telephone interviewers and assessed the quantity and pattern of alcohol consumption over the prior 30-day period (Braithwaite et al, 2005). The TLFB has been evaluated in clinical and nonclinical populations and has been shown to have high test-retest reliability across multiple populations of drinkers (Roy et al, 2008;Sobell et al, 1988Sobell et al, , 2001Sobell et al, , 2003Vakili et al, 2008).…”

“…However, for many researchers, longer time horizons increase subject response burden and may not lead to more informative data (Vakili et al, 2008). The concordance between longer versus shorter time horizons has been a subject of prior research (Carey et al, 2004;Hoeppner et al, 2010;Roy et al, 2008;Sobell et al, 2001;Toll et al, 2008;Vakili et al, 2008) but rarely investigated in non-substance-related treatment-seeking individuals and not in patients with HIV infection. In addition, there are no data verifying that the TLFB performs similarly in patients with and without HIV infection.…”

“…The use of patient self-report using quantity-frequency and daily estimation measures has been validated but can be burdensome and time consuming, especially in research conducted in general medical settings with non-substancerelated treatment-seeking individuals. Timeline followback (TLFB) is a well-established and valid method to measure patient self-report of alcohol consumption Sobell et al, 1988Sobell et al, , 2001. The use of TLFB has the advantage that it allows for varied time horizons ranging from 1 day to 1 year (Vakili et al, 2008).…”

Burden of fetal alcohol syndrome in a rural West Coast area of South Africa

“…Interviews were in the home language of participants and focused on drinking habits during the index pregnancy, which were elicited using a timeline follow-back method. [12] The final diagnosis, based on criteria published by Hoyme et al (2005), [10] encompassed all data from the clinical evaluation, the neurodevelopmental profile and maternal history. Final diagnostic categories were FAS and PFAS.…”

Prevalence and Characteristics of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

“…39 All consenting mothers of children in Tier III were administered interviews by project staff. Sequencing of questions was to maximize accurate reporting of general health, reproduction, nutrition, alcohol use, socioeconomic status (SES), and maternalheight,weight,andOFC.Drinking questions used a timeline, follow-back sequence, 40,41 and Vessels alcohol product methodology for accurate calibration of standard alcohol units. [42][43][44] Current alcohol consumption for the week preceding the interview was embedded into the nutrition questions 45 to aid accurate calibration of drinking quantity, frequency, and timing of alcohol use before and during the index pregnancies.…”