Biomaterial Database

Screening for alcohol problems: what makes a test effective? 2004

Scott H Stewart, and Gerard J Connors

Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York, USA.

Screening tests are useful in a variety of settings and contexts, but not all disorders are amenable to screening. Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and other drinking problems are a major cause of morbidity and mortality and are prevalent in the population; effective treatments are available, and patient outcome can be improved by early detection and intervention. Therefore, the use of screening tests to identify people with or at risk for AUDs can be beneficial. The characteristics of screening tests that influence their usefulness in clinical settings include their validity, sensitivity, and specificity. Appropriately conducted screening tests can help clinicians better predict the probability that individual patients do or do not have a given disorder. This is accomplished by qualitatively or quantitatively estimating variables such as positive and negative predictive values of screening in a population, and by determining the probability that a given person has a certain disorder based on his or her screening results.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008403	Mass Screening	Organized periodic procedures performed on large groups of people for the purpose of detecting disease.	Screening,Mass Screenings,Screening, Mass,Screenings,Screenings, Mass
D011237	Predictive Value of Tests	In screening and diagnostic tests, the probability that a person with a positive test is a true positive (i.e., has the disease), is referred to as the predictive value of a positive test; whereas, the predictive value of a negative test is the probability that the person with a negative test does not have the disease. Predictive value is related to the sensitivity and specificity of the test.	Negative Predictive Value,Positive Predictive Value,Predictive Value Of Test,Predictive Values Of Tests,Negative Predictive Values,Positive Predictive Values,Predictive Value, Negative,Predictive Value, Positive
D003937	Diagnosis, Differential	Determination of which one of two or more diseases or conditions a patient is suffering from by systematically comparing and contrasting results of diagnostic measures.	Diagnoses, Differential,Differential Diagnoses,Differential Diagnosis
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000437	Alcoholism	A primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, most notably denial. Each of these symptoms may be continuous or periodic. (Morse & Flavin for the Joint Commission of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and the American Society of Addiction Medicine to Study the Definition and Criteria for the Diagnosis of Alcoholism: in JAMA 1992;268:1012-4)	Alcohol Abuse,Alcoholic Intoxication, Chronic,Ethanol Abuse,Alcohol Addiction,Alcohol Dependence,Alcohol Use Disorder,Abuse, Alcohol,Abuse, Ethanol,Addiction, Alcohol,Alcohol Use Disorders,Chronic Alcoholic Intoxication,Dependence, Alcohol,Intoxication, Chronic Alcoholic,Use Disorders, Alcohol
D012372	ROC Curve	A graphic means for assessing the ability of a screening test to discriminate between healthy and diseased persons; may also be used in other studies, e.g., distinguishing stimuli responses as to a faint stimuli or nonstimuli.	ROC Analysis,Receiver Operating Characteristic,Analysis, ROC,Analyses, ROC,Characteristic, Receiver Operating,Characteristics, Receiver Operating,Curve, ROC,Curves, ROC,ROC Analyses,ROC Curves,Receiver Operating Characteristics
D015203	Reproducibility of Results	The statistical reproducibility of measurements (often in a clinical context), including the testing of instrumentation or techniques to obtain reproducible results. The concept includes reproducibility of physiological measurements, which may be used to develop rules to assess probability or prognosis, or response to a stimulus; reproducibility of occurrence of a condition; and reproducibility of experimental results.	Reliability and Validity,Reliability of Result,Reproducibility Of Result,Reproducibility of Finding,Validity of Result,Validity of Results,Face Validity,Reliability (Epidemiology),Reliability of Results,Reproducibility of Findings,Test-Retest Reliability,Validity (Epidemiology),Finding Reproducibilities,Finding Reproducibility,Of Result, Reproducibility,Of Results, Reproducibility,Reliabilities, Test-Retest,Reliability, Test-Retest,Result Reliabilities,Result Reliability,Result Validities,Result Validity,Result, Reproducibility Of,Results, Reproducibility Of,Test Retest Reliability,Validity and Reliability,Validity, Face
D039721	Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders	Categorical classification of MENTAL DISORDERS based on criteria sets with defining features. It is produced by the American Psychiatric Association. (DSM-IV, page xxii)	DSM-IV,DSM-II,DSM-III,DSM-V