Reliability and dimensionality of the Short Alcohol Dependence Data (SADD) questionnaire in a clinical sample of hospitalized patients: using the SADD in a general hospital setting.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the internal consistency and dimensionality of the Short Alcohol Dependence Data questionnaire in a general hospital sample.

METHOD

A cross-sectional study was carried out involving 169 randomly selected inpatients of a general hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. A Portuguese version of the 15-item Short Alcohol Dependence Data questionnaire was applied together with a questionnaire to assess demographic and anthropometric data.

RESULTS

The internal consistency of the Short Alcohol Dependence Data as measured using Cronbach's alpha was 0.79, indicating that the items of the questionnaire are related to the same construct. Principal Component Analysis of the scale resulted in a five-dimension solution accounting for 69.6% of the total variance. The mean score of the Short Alcohol Dependence Data in this sample was 7.96 (SD = 6.8).

CONCLUSION

The adapted version of the SADD seems to retain the characteristics of the original version. The internal consistency of the instrument suggests that its questions converge to the same construct. The factorial solution reflects different dimensions that correspond to distinct aspects of the alcohol dependence syndrome.