Adaptation of and Protocol for the Validation of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) in the Russian Federation for Use in Primary Healthcare

Abstract

To adapt and validate the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) for use in the Russian Federation and countries with Russian-speaking populations by: 1) Operationalizing alcohol use patterns to allow for the best identification of hazardous use patterns in the Russian context. 2) Determining the best cut-off values for brief advice/interventions in primary healthcare settings. 3) Determining the best cut-off values for potential alcohol use disorders. Systematic review of past use and validation of the Russian-language AUDIT. Interviews to be conducted with experts to identify problems encountered in the use of existing Russian-language AUDIT versions. A pilot study using a revised translation of the Russian-language AUDIT that incorporates country-specific drinking patterns in the Russian Federation. The systematic review identified over 60 different Russian-language AUDIT versions without systematic validation studies. The main difficulties encountered with the use of the AUDIT in the Russian Federation were related to the lack of: a concept and definition for a standard drink; low-risk drinking guidelines/thresholds and inclusion of the specific drinking pattern of episodic heavy drinking. A revised version of the Russian-language AUDIT was created based on the pilot studies, and was validated in primary healthcare facilities in all regions in 2019/2020.