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A comparison of two alcohol craving questionnaires
Author(s) -
Love Alix,
James Darren,
Willner Paul
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1046/j.1360-0443.1998.937109113.x
Subject(s) - craving , psychology , exploratory factor analysis , alcohol , binge drinking , clinical psychology , poison control , injury prevention , psychometrics , medicine , psychiatry , addiction , medical emergency , biochemistry , chemistry
Aim. To compare two multi‐dimensional questionnaires to measure cravings and urges for alcohol: the Alcohol Craving Questionnaire (ACQ: Singleton, Henningfield & Tiffany, 1994a) and the Desires for Alcohol Questionnaire (DAQ: Clark et al. , 1996). Design, setting and participants. Both questionnaires were administered, in a counterbalanced order, to a total of 380 recreational drinkers. In a further study, a shortened version of the DAQ was administered to a sample of 131 drinkers attending AA or a treatment centre. Exploratory factor analyses were carried out on the data and relationships between questionnaire score and other variables were assessed. Findings. In recreational drinkers both instruments appeared to have a three‐factor structure. The DAQ appeared superior to the ACQ in a number of respects: it produced more reliable factors; its structure accounted for a higher proportion of the variance; the factor inter‐correlations were somewhat lower; in a combined analysis of both instruments most of the factors retained came from the DAQ; and the DAQ discriminated better between binge and non‐binge drinkers and excessive and moderate drinkers. A similar factor structure was found for the DAQ in the alcoholic subjects with addition of a factor of "controllability". Conclusions. The results support a multifactorial account of alcohol craving, and indicate that the DAQ has some advantages over the ACQ as a research tool.