Measuring the use and career histories of drug users in treatment: reliability of the Lifetime Drug Use History (LDUH) and its data yield relative to clinical case notes (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Drug Issues, 2010
Reliance on self-report of alcohol and drug use behavior is typical among studies of substance abusers. Few studies have compared different instruments assessing frequency of drug use over long periods of time to determine if the pattern of use is shown to be similar across measures. In this study, the UCLA Natural History Interview (NHI) and the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) were administered at three annual follow-up periods (N = 301). The temporal pattern of the trajectories of days of use assessed by the ASI and NHI are comparable (in terms of both slope and intercept) for alcohol, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana use. Some discrepancies appear to arise from differences in terminology among the instruments. However, the patterns of drug use were consistent across instruments, supporting their reliability for longitudinal examination of self-reported drug use.
Introduction--the validity of self-reported drug use: improving the accuracy of survey estimates
NIDA research monograph, 1997
Measuring levels and patterns of illicit drug use, their correlates, and related behaviors requires the use of self-report methods. However, the validity of self-reported data on sensitive and highly stigmatized behaviors such as drug use has been questioned. The goal of this monograph is to review current and cutting-edge research on the validity of self-reported drug use and to describe methodological advances designed to reduce total error in estimates of drug use and quantify sources of nonsampling error. This monograph reviews a number of studies that use some presumably more accurate measure of drug use to validate self-reported use. In addition, evolving methods to improve a wide variety of procedures used in survey designs are explored, including computer-assisted interviewing, predictors of response propensity, measurement error models, and improved prevalence estimation techniques. Experimental manipulations of various survey conditions and situational factors also show pr...
The Reliability and Consistency of Self-reports on Substance Use in a Longitudinal Study
Addiction, 1987
The paper presents an evaluation of the stability and consistency of self-reported adolescent drug use. The data were collected from 1900 high-school students. Analyses included estimates of alternate forms reliability, nonresponse rates, logical consistency in the responses, test-retest reliability as well as estimates of exaggerated reports. The findings indicate a high rate of stability in self-reporting of substance use, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. These results are in agreement with other studies of self-reported drug use and suggest that questionnaire may provide highly reliable data for research.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 1995
In substance abuse research many study protocols require the recall and report of behavior from the distant past that may affect reliability. This study addresses the stability of substance use reports over a IO-year follow-up period. We reinterviewed 223 ECA subjects who reported baseline drug use. Reports from baseline to follow-up were categorized as either incident cases, agreements, or discrepancies. Different patterns were found for each substance group. The authors found that cannabis, cocaine, sedatives, and opiates had high agreement rates ranging from 82-86% and amphetamines had the lowest (73%). Implications for future drug research are discussed.
PsycEXTRA Dataset
Since illicit drug use is by definition illegal, the tasks of measuring incidence and prevalence and charting the course of the epidemic have fallen to survey researchers over the past 30 years. Although survey methods have obvious advantages over indirect measures such as arrests, seizures, and treatment admissions, they are frequently criticized because they rely on valid self-reporting of sensitive and highly stigmatized behavior. Validation studies conducted before the mid-1980s involving known samples of drug users or urinalysis techniques suggested that drug use was fairly accurately reported in self-report surveys. However, more recent validation studies conducted with criminal justice and former treatment clients using improved urinalysis techniques and hair analyses demonstrate that self-report methods miss a lot of recent drug use. A review of the research literature suggests that neither self-reports nor bioassays are wholly accurate, and both have inherent problems. However, because self-report measures are necessary to understand the complexity of causal and correlational attributes of drug abuse, it is necessary to determine what can be done to improve valid self-reporting. This chapter examines the research literature on validation studies to provide an overview of what is known about the accuracy of selfreported drug use.
Validity and relevance of self-report data provided by criminalized addicted persons in treatment
Addiction Research & Theory, 2003
Treatment of criminalized individuals with addictions poses a number of difficulties. One of these difficulties is linked to the lack of validity-perceived or real-of self report. Lack of validity of self-report data could compromise the treatment process itself as well as the assessment of changes that have occurred in the course of treatment. The present study compares certain self-report data provided by criminalized addicts involved in a treatment program in Quebec (Canada) with other sources of information. The data come from 166 persons following a treatment specifically designed for criminalized persons. Two comparisons were made between participants' self-report data and other data collected through this study to determine the validity and the relevance of the self-report data. The results suggest that these data are valid and that they may be advantageously used in treatment planning.
Reliability and validity of not-in-treatment drug users' follow-up self-reports
AIDS and Behavior, 2000
Based on a sample of 259 drug users not in treatment from five different sites, we examined the reliability of self-reported demographic and behavioral information and the validity of self-reported drug use. Data were collected twice with a 48-hr interval, using the Risk Behavior Follow-Up Assessment (RBFA; National Institute for Drug Abuse, 1992), a structured interview. We examined internal consistency and test-retest reliability and found that, overall, drug users were generally reliable reporters of information regarding their demographics, drug use, sexual behavior, work and income, and criminal behavior. Exceptions to these findings of reliability were noted for items that were phrased too broadly. Comparison of self-report data and urinalysis results indicates that drug users accurately report cocaine and opiate use, although reports of cocaine use were somewhat more valid. These findings indicate that self-report data from drug users, when collected by trained interviewers, can be considered reliable and valid.
Hardcore drug users claim to be occasional users: drug use frequency underreporting
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2000
Self-reports of drug use frequency are central to treatment outcome evaluations, estimates of the prevalence of heavy use, estimates of treatment need, and other questions with direct relevance to drug policies. Nevertheless, surprisingly little is known about the validity of these self-reports. This study examines the accuracy of 701 frequency self-reports made by a sample of methadone maintenance clients. Self-report accuracy is evaluated by comparing rates of positive urinalyses found for each case with rates that would be expected had drug use occurred only as often as reported. Expected rates of positive urinalyses are derived from conservative Monte Carlo models of drug use for each case. This procedure reveals extensive heroin and cocaine use frequency underreporting. After adjusting for frequency underreporting, 51% of 279 cases reporting only occasional heroin use (1-10 days in the past 30), and 22% of the 157 cases reporting occasional cocaine use, are found to be using these drugs with frequencies corresponding to what the Office of National Drug Control Policy defines as 'hardcore use' (more than 10 days in the past 30). Drug use frequency underreporting appears substantial, and might constitute an important threat to the validity of some treatment outcome evaluations, needs assessments and other analyses that rely on drug use frequency self-reports.
Consistency in Self-Reports of Drug Use Frequency by High-Risk Offenders Over a 5-Year Interval
The Prison Journal, 2013
Self-reports of drug use by high-risk offenders interviewed on two occasions were compared to determine the extent to which the reports were consistent at the two interview points. Self-reports of frequency of drug use over the same 12-month period were compared among parolees (N = 380) who had participated in prison drug treatment and who were interviewed at 1 and 5 years following prison release. The kappa coefficient was .31 (p < .001), generally considered a fair level of agreement. Total concordance in retrospective recall of primary drug use frequency was 54.5%.
The Validity of Self-Reported Opiate and Cocaine Use by Out-of-Treatment Drug Users
Journal of Drug Issues, 1998
Article *DRUG abusers *COCAINE abuse *DRUG abuse *NARCOTICS *HIV infections *THERAPEUTICS *URINE-Analysis *SUBSTANCE abuse *MULTIVARIATE analysis The objective of this study was (1) to assess the validity of self-report measures of opiate and cocaine use for a sample of out-of-treatment drug users by comparing self-reports to urinalysis results, and (2) to examine the correlates of valid self-reports. Baseline data were collected from 1,015 out-of-treatment drug users in Philadelphia as part of an HIV risk reduction intervention project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Agreement rates, sensitivity, and specificity measurements were high, and kappa values were good indicating that out-of-treatment drug users provided moderately valid self-reported drug use. The multivariate analysis revealed that women and younger persons were more likely to validly report opiate use and those who were younger and more educated were more likely to give valid reports of cocaine use. Additional research is needed to better understand differences in the validity of self-reports of opiate and cocaine use and the role that urinalysis plays in influencing the validity of self-reported data.