Do SADQ and AUDIT identify independent impacts of alcohol abuse - clinical and biochemical markers respectively?

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We have analyzed extant data to see if Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ) assess overlapping aspects of alcoholism, and how they relate to lab measures of alcoholism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Consecutive male patients between 20 and 50 years were recruited from varied departments of a general hospital. AUDIT and SADQ, as well as liver function tests, were part of the data obtained. RESULTS: Despite, a significant correlation between total scores of SADQ and AUDIT (ρ = 0.188, P < 0.021) and some of their sub-scores. SADQ scores alone were significantly correlating with clinical variables of alcoholism such as family history and age of onset; AUDIT did not. On the other hand, AUDIT total scores correlated with total and conjugated bilirubin, while SADQ did not. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSION: Our data suggests that the two scales, AUDIT and SADQ may be tapping into two different outcomes of increased alcohol use namely clinical and biochemical markers, respectively. SADQ could be useful in studies looking at withdrawal related severity and clinical aspects of alcoholism; while AUDIT could be more suitable for studies looking at alcoholism-related medical morbidity. This needs to be confirmed in larger unselected samples from different community and clinical settings.