The initial measurement structure of the Home Drinking Assessment Scale (HDAS)

Abstract

Aims: To evaluate the initial psychometric properties of a novel Home Drinking Assessment Scale (HDAS). Participants: Five-hundred and twenty-five (58% female) participants recruited from the internet address book of an English University. This also included a sub-sample (6%) recruited from Twitter and Facebook contacts. Design and methods: Internet-based survey analysed using a two-stage factor analysis protocol and internal consistency (IC) assessment. Findings: A power calculation was made on the basis of pilot data and this established that 317 interviewees were required to test the reliability of the HDAS. The items comprising the HDAS were found to offer the best fit to data when they comprised two-subscales: (1) emotional reasons for home drinking (5-items) and (2) practical reasons for home drinking (3-items). Subscale 1 was also found to have acceptable IC whereas subscale 2 exhibited sub-optimal IC characteristics. Conclusions: This initial study indicates that the HDAS has promise as a measure of the individuals’ rationale for home drinking. Subscale 1, may usefully be used in future research whereas the IC characteristics of subscale 2 suggests that further development is required, including the evaluation of additional items.

• Alcohol
• alcohol-related harm
• behavioural assessment
• cognition
• home drinking

Acknowledgements

The contributions of Professor Christopher Lewis and Dr Victoria Woodward of the Department of Psychology, Glyndwr University is gratefully acknowledged for the initial statistical analysis.

Declaration of interest

There are no conflicts of interest to declare. This project was funded through the internal grant scheme of the University of Greenwich 2013 Grant No. RAE-HSC-002/10.

Notes

¹ It was noted that in the resulting two-factor CFA model that item-7 has a low loading onto Factor 2. Though a reanalysis excluding this item improved model fit very slightly, it is of note that such an approach would result in a factor comprising just two items. It was therefore felt appropriate at this time to keep this item (item 7).