Is My Alcohol Use A Problem
How do I know if my alcohol use is a problem?
Alcohol use can impact your health and can interfere with medications. It also has the potential to negatively impact relationships, occupation, finances, and legal status.
The following questionnaire is called the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). It may help you to determine whether your alcohol use is becoming problematic, and whether you need support to reduce or stop your use. Please answer honestly and total your scores for each question as follows:
A = 0
B = 1
C = 2
D = 3
E = 4
1. How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?
A. Never
B. Monthly or less
C. 2-4 times a month
D. 2-3 times a week
E. 4 or more times a week
2. How many standard drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when drinking?
A. 1 or 2
B. 3 or 4
C. 5 or 6
D. 7 to 9
E. 10 or more
3. How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?
A. Never
B. Less than monthly
C. Monthly
D. Weekly
E. Daily or almost daily
4. During the past year, how often have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started?
A. Never
B. Less than monthly
C. Monthly
D. Weekly
E. Daily or almost daily
5. During the past year, how often have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of drinking?
A. Never
B. Less than monthly
C. Monthly
D. Weekly
E. Daily or almost daily
6. During the past year, how often have you needed a drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?
A. Never
B. Less than monthly
C. Monthly
D. Weekly
E. Daily or almost daily
7. During the past year, how often have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking?
A. Never
B. Less than monthly
C. Monthly
D. Weekly
E. Daily or almost daily
8. During the past year, how often have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?
A. Never
B. Less than monthly
C. Monthly
D. Weekly
E. Daily or almost daily
9. Have you or someone else been injured as a result of your drinking?
A. No
C. Yes, but not in the past year
E. Yes, during the past year
10. Has a relative or friend, doctor or other health worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested you cut down?
A. No
C. Yes, but not in the past year
E. Yes, during the past year
If you scored an 8 or above on this questionnaire, you may benefit from reducing or stopping your alcohol use. Please click the following links to learn about services that our department has available to assist you:
Note: The AUDIT has 10 questions and the possible responses to each question are scored 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4, with the exception of questions 9 and 10 which have possible responses of 0, 2 and 4.
The range of possible scores is from 0 to 40, where 0 indicates an abstainer who has never had any problems from alcohol. A score of 1 to 7 suggests low-risk consumption according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Scores from 8 to 14 suggest hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption, and a score of 15 or more indicates the likelihood of alcohol dependence (moderate-severe alcohol use disorder).
de Meneses-Gaya, C., Zuardi, A. W., Loureiro, S. R., & Crippa, J. A. S. (2009). Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): An updated systematic review of psychometric properties. Psychology & Neuroscience, 2(1), 83–97. https://doi.org/10.3922/j.psns.2009.1.12