Convergent Validity of Self-Administered Addiction Severity Index in a Sample of Nigerian Patients in a Residential Treatment Facility

BACKGROUND: Substance use disorders present with multiple drug-related problems that need to be evaluated with a view to planning and administering holistic interventions that could potentially improve addiction treatment outcomes. Many valid instruments are available for assessing the problems that occur in addiction but most of them require some training and they take a lot of time to administer. This study validates a shorter self-administered version of the Addiction severity Index (ASI) against the Clinician-administered ASI with a view to cutting the time needed to administer the instrument. METHODS: The study recruited 142 patients in a residential treatment center. Correlation coefficient and t-test were used to assess for the convergence of the two version. RESULTS: The correlation coefficients ranged from 0.52 to 0.97 for the different domain of the ASI with higher endorsement of problems in the self-administered than clinician administered version in most domains. CONCLUSION: The self-administered ASI is a valid alternative to the clinician-administered ASI and it saves valuable time especially in resource-constrained settings.