Over the last year, how often have you been bothered by…
01
How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?
Item score-
02
How many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking?
Item score-
03
How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?
Item score-
04
How often during the last year have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started?
Item score-
05
How often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of drinking?
Item score-
06
How often during the last year have you needed a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?
Item score-
07
How often during the last year have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking?
Item score-
08
How often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because of your drinking?
Item score-
09
Have you or someone else been injured because of your drinking?
Item score-
10
Has a relative, friend, doctor, or other health worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested you cut down?
Item score-
Scored locally in your browser - nothing is sent until you choose to.
0 of 10 answered
0 / 40
AUDIT0 / 10
Over the last year, how often have you been bothered by…
01
How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?
Item score-
02
How many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking?
Item score-
03
How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?
Item score-
04
How often during the last year have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started?
Item score-
05
How often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of drinking?
Item score-
06
How often during the last year have you needed a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?
Item score-
07
How often during the last year have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking?
Item score-
08
How often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because of your drinking?
Item score-
09
Have you or someone else been injured because of your drinking?
Item score-
10
Has a relative, friend, doctor, or other health worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested you cut down?
Item score-
0 of 10 answered0 / 40
02 - The clinician's brief
01 - What it measures
What this scale measures.
The AUDIT measures hazardous and harmful alcohol use over the past year across three domains: consumption (items 1-3), dependence symptoms (items 4-6), and alcohol-related harm (items 7-10). Each of the first eight items is scored 0-4 and the last two 0/2/4, giving a total of 0-40.
It is designed to detect problem drinking along the full spectrum - from hazardous consumption well before dependence, through harmful use, to probable dependence - which distinguishes it from lifetime screens like the CAGE that mainly detect established dependence.
02 - Origin & purpose
Where it comes from.
The AUDIT was developed by the World Health Organization through a six-country collaborative study and published by Saunders and colleagues in 1993 - the first screening instrument designed cross-nationally and validated across primary care populations. In the original study the >=8 cutoff identified 92% of hazardous or harmful drinkers while excluding 94% of non-cases.
Babor and colleagues' 2001 WHO manual defined the four risk zones used today and standardised administration. It is a WHO instrument, free to reproduce and use for clinical purposes.
03 - Scoring & cutoffs
How scoring works.
Sum all ten items for a total of 0-40. The WHO manual defines four zones: 0-7 low risk (alcohol education), 8-15 hazardous drinking (brief advice), 16-19 harmful drinking (brief counselling and continued monitoring), 20-40 possible dependence (referral for diagnostic assessment).
A lower cutoff of 7 is often recommended for women, adolescents and adults over 65, whose risk rises at lower consumption.
Score
Severity
Interpretation
0–7
Low risk
Low-risk drinking.
8–15
Increasing risk
Hazardous drinking. Offer brief advice.
16–19
Higher risk
Harmful drinking. Brief counselling and continued monitoring.
20–40
Possible dependence
Possible alcohol dependence. Refer for diagnostic assessment.
04 - Validation evidence
How well it performs.
In the original WHO multi-country validation, a cutoff of >=8 showed sensitivity around 0.92 and specificity around 0.94 for hazardous or harmful drinking. A 2002 review across dozens of studies (Reinert & Allen) found sensitivities typically in the 0.80s-0.90s across primary care, emergency and psychiatric settings, with internal consistency around alpha 0.80. The three-item AUDIT-C consumption subset preserves most of the screening accuracy at a fraction of the length.
alpha ~ 0.80
Internal consistency
92%
Sensitivity (>=8)
94%
Specificity (>=8)
4
Risk zones (WHO)
05 - How it compares
How it compares to the alternatives.
Instrument
Items
Time
When to reach for it
AUDIT
10
~2-3 min
The default full-spectrum alcohol screen; detects hazardous use before dependence. Free (WHO).
Drug-use counterpart to the AUDIT; use alongside it for full substance screening.
SADQ
20
~5 min
Severity of established dependence - for treatment planning (e.g. withdrawal management), not screening.
06 - When to use it
Right tool, wrong tool.
Reach for it when
-Routine intake screening in psychiatry and primary care
-Annual re-screening
-Establishing a baseline before brief intervention
-Monitoring change after brief advice
Reach for something else when
-Time allows only seconds (AUDIT-C)
-You need to grade established dependence severity for withdrawal planning (SADQ)
-Screening for drug use (DAST-10)
-The patient may under-report - collateral history and biomarkers (GGT, CDT, PEth) complement any self-report screen
07 - Confidence & precision
Reading the score with care.
The AUDIT is a self-report of a stigmatised behaviour, so its precision depends on candour and context: scores obtained in routine, non-judgmental screening are more reliable than those taken during acute presentations or where disclosure has consequences. Zone boundaries are guidance, not diagnosis - a 16 in a young binge-drinking patient and a 16 in an older daily drinker call for different conversations. Re-screen after brief intervention to measure change.
08 - Limitations
What it cannot tell you.
The AUDIT screens for risk; it does not diagnose alcohol use disorder - DSM-5/ICD-11 criteria require a clinical interview. Self-report under-estimates consumption in dependent drinkers. The 12-month window misses recent escalation in the last weeks. Standard cutoffs were derived largely from adult male primary-care samples; use adjusted cutoffs for women, adolescents and older adults, and interpret with cultural drinking norms in mind.
[2]Babor TF, Higgins-Biddle JC, Saunders JB, Monteiro MG. AUDIT: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test - Guidelines for Use in Primary Care, 2nd ed. WHO/MSD/MSB/01.6a. (2001)
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