Assessing criterion validity of the Simple Screening Instrument for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (SSI-AOD) in a college population

Heavy drinking among college students is widespread, characterized by a unique pattern of heavy episodic drinking, and carries risk of negative consequences both immediate and long term. Because screening to detect high-risk student drinkers is of primary importance to insure early identification and appropriate levels of care, this study evaluated the criterion validity of the SSI-AOD. The SSI-AOD evidenced moderate to strong correlations with alcohol frequency, consumption, and problem indices. Sensitivity and specificity of the SSI-AOD and the AUDIT was determined by ROC analysis utilizing a range of possible cut-off scores using DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse as the reference standard. The SSI-AOD had very low sensitivity at the recommended cut-score of 4 and demonstrated poor ability to correctly classify participants overall. The AUDIT demonstrated significantly better performance, correctly classifying approximately 70% of participants using a cut-score of 8.