Evaluating alcohol use among Russian women at risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy: A comparison of three measures of alcohol use

ABSTRACT

The Quick Drinking Screen (QDS) and Timeline Followback (TLFB), measures of alcohol use, have yielded similar reports of drinking with English speakers. The present study, a secondary data analysis, compared three measures of alcohol use (i.e., QDS, TLFB, and AUDIT) among Russian-speaking women. This is the first study to compare all three measures. This study replicated the findings of studies with English speakers and demonstrated that brief screening measures (QDS, AUDIT) provide reliable summary measures of alcohol use when compared to a detailed drinking measure (TLFB). The use of brief screening measures is recommended for use with Russian women.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol-exposed
• AUDIT
• drinking assessment
• pregnancies
• quick drinking screen
• Russia
• timeline followback
• women

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the contributions of Barbara Bonner, PhD, Mark Chaffin, PhD, and Karen Beckman, MD, at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and Nicholas Knowlton, MS, of NSK Statistical Solutions. The authors also thank Dr. Mark Sobell for his helpful comments on the manuscript, Ms. Kathy Kyler, MS, of OUHSC for her technical assistance with the manuscript preparation, and graduate students from St. Petersburg State University, Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, who assisted with the study.