![]() ![]() The results of the present study provide additional evidence for the long-term reliability and validity of lifetime alcoholism diagnoses, and suggest that the reliability and validity of telephone interview assessments of alcoholism are as good as that of an in-person interview. Ninety-six percent of individuals identified by Department of Veterans Affairs patient treatment files as having an alcohol dependence diagnosis were correctly diagnosed by the telephone interview. ![]() The reliability of individual alcoholism symptoms was fair to good, with kappas of 0.46 to 0.67. The test-retest reliability of alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence diagnoses was good, with kappa coefficients of 0.74 and 0.61, respectively. ![]() In addition, a search of Department of Veterans Affairs patient treatment files of inpatient hospitalizations between 19 yielded a subsample of 89 interviewed men with a past discharge diagnosis of alcohol dependence. A subsample of 146 men was interviewed twice by telephone using the same structured interview an average of 15 months apart to evaluate the long-term reliability of alcoholism symptoms and diagnoses. The long-term reliability and validity of telephone lay interview assessments of alcoholism were examined in the context of a large national community-based survey of over 8,000 male Vietnam era veterans.
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