Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access originally published online on August 2, 2004
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Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 455-462, 2004
Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 39, No. 5 © Medical Council on Alcohol 2004; all rights reserved
PROBLEMS WITH THE GRADUATED FREQUENCY APPROACH TO MEASURING ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION: RESULTS FROM A PILOT STUDY IN TORONTO, CANADA
1 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, London, Ontario and 2 Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, 3 Groupe de Recherche sur les Aspects Sociaux de la Santé et de la Prévention (GRASP) and 4 Department of Sociology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada, 5 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 6 Department of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 7 Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada and 8 Addiction Research Institute, Zurich, Switzerland, and 9 Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems, Lausanne, Switzerland
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: kgraham{at}uwo.ca
(Received 31 December 2003; first review notified 4 February 2004; in revised form 7 May 2004; accepted 9 May 2004)
Aims: To evaluate advantages and disadvantages of the graduated frequency (GF) approach, which asks about the frequency of alcohol consumption at mutually exclusive quantity levels (i.e. 12 or more drinks, at least eight drinks but less than 12, etc.).
Methods: Telephone survey of 464 adults aged 18 and older in Toronto, Canada, using random digit dialling and computer-assisted telephone interviewing.
Results: Respondents reported higher frequency and volume of drinking on the GF compared to overall and beverage-specific quantity–frequency type measures; however, at least 16% of GF responses included double counting on their frequency estimates using the GF. When these cases were excluded or corrected, differences between the GF and quantity–frequency measures mostly disappeared. The GF was superior to quantity–frequency measures for identifying heavy episodic drinkers. However, the GF had little advantage over the weekly recall method except for identifying very infrequent (i.e. less often than twice a month) heavy drinkers. Conclusions: Because the GF has a high rate of response errors in terms of measuring frequency of alcohol consumption, other combinations of measures, including alternate measures of heavy episodic drinking should be considered.
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