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Evaluation of the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) in assessing lifetime and recent problems
Author(s) -
Zung Burton J.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(198204)38:2<425::aid-jclp2270380239>3.0.co;2-6
Subject(s) - false positive paradox , psychology , test (biology) , psychiatry , reliability (semiconductor) , test validity , clinical psychology , psychometrics , screening test , medicine , statistics , pediatrics , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , biology , paleontology , power (physics)
Investigated the reliability, validity and dimensionality of scores obtained by acute psychiatric inpatients ( N = 120) on the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test adapted to assess lifetime and current symptomatology. Under most conditions, test scores and classifications were reasonably consistent over brief intervals and the underlying structure of test content was unidimensional. The test showed high sensitivity (88%), insufficient specificity (50%), and modest classification accuracy overall (58%) and thus underscored the problem of excessive false positives and/or an inadequate diagnosis as criterion.