Biomedical subjects

Amy Rubin

Publications and source records attributed to Amy Rubin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Automated telephone screening for problem drinking.

OBJECTIVE: This study assessed test-retest reliability and criterion validity for an automated version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), a screening tool for alcohol-related problems. Participants' willingness to use such a system to learn about and change their drinking behavior was also assessed. METHOD: Participants were 202 callers recruited through newspaper ads and flyers asking for volunteers concerned about their drinking and willing to help test a new method of screening and referral for alcohol problems. Participants were divided into two groups. The first group of subjects recruited received the Telephone-Linked Communications (TLC)-AUDIT twice, administered a week apart. The second group received the TLC-AUDIT once and a human-administered AUDIT once, also a week apart. RESULTS: Test-retest reliability was assessed in 102 participants; the intraclass correlation of AUDIT scores between both administrations was .87; kappa for nonproblem versus problem drinking (AUDIT score of 8 or above) was .89. The validity study compared the TLC-AUDIT scores of the next 100 participants to AUDIT questions administered by a human interviewer. The intraclass correlation was .94; kappa was .75. Seventy-five percent of all participants who screened positive for problem drinking agreed they would "talk to a computer again to learn more about your drinking pattern and how to deal with it". CONCLUSIONS: Automated telephone technology can be used to administer the AUDIT instrument with high levels of reliability and validity. This technology could be used to deliver behavioral change interventions.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Computer-based and live interviews on problem drinking: users' attitudes.

Some studies of computerized interviews particularly those that deal with personally sensitive topics demonstrate that people have a preference for automated interviews versus live interviews. To explore this phenomenon, we administered four open-ended questions after participants were screened for problem drinking by both an automated and a human telephone interviewer. Both interviews administered AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) for assessing problem drinking. Individuals were recruited into the study who responded to ads in daily papers. Sixty-two percent of the participants preferred the human interviewer and only 3% among these expressed a concern about confidentiality of the interview. Among the 22% who preferred the automated interview, 32% indicated confidentiality as a reason for their preference.

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMed2003

New constructs and assessments for relapse and continued use potential in the ASAM Patient Placement Criteria.

One area of intensive study in recent years in addiction research is the characterization and prediction of relapse risk. Given the growing list of findings and assessment tools in this area, in preparation for the second edition, revised volume of the Patient Placement Criteria (PPC) of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), a workgroup of the Coalition for National Criteria was assigned the task of creating a revised conceptual organization for Dimension 5: Relapse/Continued Use Potential. The workgroup conducted a review of the previous Dimension 5 constructs and criteria, including a decision analysis of the previous Dimension 5 decision rules. Following that analysis, field data from the ASAM Criteria Validity Study at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School were analyzed from a large cohort of public and indigent patients in eastern Massachusetts. After determining the concurrent validity of the Dimension 5 decision rules and their limitations, the decision rules were rewritten to gain improved validity. This exercise revealed techniques that can and should be used to improve the discrimination of levels of care among all Dimensions. Finally, the workgroup expanded and refined the constructs that should comprise a revised Dimension 5. This revised list of constructs is sequential and hierarchical. It offers face validity on several levels of current basic and clinical research knowledge: behavioral pharmacology, behavioral psychology, learning theory and psychopathology. While the Second Edition-Revised volume of the ASAM PPC (PPC-2R) does not go so far as to propose final decision rules for Dimension 5 based on these new constructs, it does recommend pilot adoption of several new assessment tools for this dimension and provides the framework incorporating those constructs and assessments in the next complete PPC edition.

Adaptation, Psychological↗