Screening illicit substance use in college students: The Chinese version of the Drug Abuse Screening Test.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

This study investigated the applicability of the Chinese versions of Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST) to detect illicit substance use in college students.

METHODS:

The data arising from a campus prevention program, Screening for Illicit Substance Use in College (SISUC), were utilized to explore the psychometrics of 26 items (DAST-26) and 10 items (DAST-10) versions of DAST in college students (CS group). A group of youth with illicit substance use were enrolled as the Illicit Substance Use group (IS group). A set of self-report questionnaires, including the Chinese version of DAST, were administered.

RESULTS:

A total of 1214 participants were recruited as the CS group and 208 as the IS group. The Cronbach's alpha of DAST-26 was 0.74 in CS and 0.90 in IS; while 0.59 in CS and 0.78 in IS for the DAST-10. At a cut-off of 4 for DAST-26, the sensitivity was 87 % and specificity 97 %. As to DAST-10, a cut-off of 2 produced the sensitivity of 86 % and specificity of 96 %. The area under the curve was 0.943 for DAST-26 and 0.940 for DAST-10. The confirmatory factor analyses found a single-factor solution for the DAST-26 and DAST-10.

CONCLUSIONS:

With comparison to the DAST-26, the shorter version, DAST-10, may offer promise for detecting illicit substance use in college students.

• Authors: Yi-Ting Chen, Jung-Chen Chang, Chau-Shoun Lee
• Journal: Drug and alcohol dependence (Drug Alcohol Depend) Vol. 215 Pg. 108184 (10 01 2020) ISSN: 1879-0046 [Electronic] Ireland
• PMID: 32763780 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Topics

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Asian People
• China
• Factor Analysis, Statistical
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Mass Screening (statistics & numerical data)
• Psychometrics
• Reproducibility of Results
• Research
• Students
• Substance Abuse Detection (methods)
• Substance-Related Disorders (diagnosis, epidemiology)
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• Universities