Unsafe Drinking
There are a number of different tools and measurements health professionals can use to determine whether or not a patient is drinking too much.
The Alcohol Disorders Identification Test (known as AUDIT-C) is a ten-question alcohol screening tool, developed by the World Health Organisation. It is used as a way of detecting alcohol misue of any kind.
Tools like this are increasingly used in Accident and Emergency and GP surgeries as a way of tackling unsafe drinking. Alcohol use can range from:
- Lower risk
- Increasing risk( hazardous drinking)
- Higher risk (harmful drinking)
- Moderately dependent
- Severely dependent
Alcohol related health problems tend to increase as the consumption rises but it is possible to reduce the chance of these health problems developing by decreasing how much alcohol you drink. Screening tools help with this as they identify what your risk levels are based on the scores
The AUDIT-C is simple to complete, is easy to score and each of the questions has a set of responses to choose from, with a score ranging from 0 to 4. If you score 5 or above this is classed as an AUDIT-C positive, this indicates increasing or higher risk drinking. You should discuss your score with your doctor or health professional.
