The reliability and validity of drug users' self reports of amphetamine use among primarily heroin and cocaine users.

Lucy E Napper, Dennis G Fisher, Mark E Johnson, Michele M Wood
Author Information
  1. Lucy E Napper: Center for Behavioral Research and Services, California State University, Long Beach, 90813, USA.

Abstract

Relatively few studies have addressed the psychometric properties of self-report measures of amphetamine use. This study examines the reliability and validity of the Risk Behavior Assessment's (RBA) lifetime and recent amphetamine-use questions. To evaluate validity, 4027 out-of-treatment primarily cocaine and heroin users provided urine samples that were compared to self-report data; to evaluate reliability, 218 completed the RBA at two time points, 48h apart. In the overall sample, self-reports demonstrated moderately high validity, with a 95% accuracy rate (kappa=.54). When analysis was restricted to recent amphetamine users validity was slightly lower (71.5% accuracy; kappa=.41). Test-retest data indicated good reliability for self-reports of ever having used amphetamine (kappa=.79), and amphetamine use in the past 30 days (.75

Keywords

References

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Grants

  1. F32 DA022902/NIDA NIH HHS
  2. F32 DA022902-02/NIDA NIH HHS
  3. F32DA022902/NIDA NIH HHS

MeSH Term

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Amphetamine
Amphetamine-Related Disorders
Cocaine-Related Disorders
Female
Heroin Dependence
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
Self Disclosure
Self Report
Young Adult

Chemicals

Amphetamine

Word Cloud

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