A brief Addiction Recovery Questionnaire derived from the views of service users and concerned others

Abstract

Aims: (i) To quantify support across five stakeholder groups for 20 recovery indicators previously generated from focus groups of service users and concerned others and (ii) To create a brief recovery questionnaire. Methods: Indicators were rated by stakeholders for their overall importance and the three most important ranked. The factor structure was determined by principal component analysis. Findings: The initial 20 recovery indicators covered the spectrum of substance misuse, social and psychological domains. Positive endorsement of each indicator by stakeholder group ranged from 53% to 74% of the maximum support possible with stronger support from service users and concerned others than from practitioners and commissioners. The greatest number of individuals in each stakeholder group, from 86% of combined problem drinkers and drug takers to 36% of specialist practitioners, rated abstinence as the single most important aspect of recovery and well-being was rated second most important. The indicators were refined to create a 12-item Addiction Recovery Questionnaire – the items have good independent evidence of importance to outcome to support their inclusion. Originality: The questionnaire is derived solely from the views of service users and concerned others – it is a brief tool with high face validity and suitable for routine use.

• Abstinence
• addiction
• outcome
• recovery

Acknowledgements

The authors thank to Caroline Fairhurst for statistical advice and Dr Gillian Tober for commenting on earlier drafts of this article.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. This article is part of independent research funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) through the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for Leeds, York and Bradford. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, NIHR or the Department of Health. The NIHR had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation, writing of this article.

Ethical approval was given by both Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the NRES Committee Yorkshire & the Humber – Leeds West: 11/Y/0022.