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Table 5 AUDIT-C thresholds for higher risk drinking (male)

From: Validation of the AUDIT-C in adults seeking help with their drinking online

AUDIT-C score

Sensitivity  % (95% CI)

Specificity  % (95% CI)

LR+a (95% CI)

LR−b (95% CI)

Sensitivity + specificity

% Correctly classified (95% CI)

≥2

100.00 (99.60, 100.0)

0.84 (0.31, 1.82)

1.01 (0.46, 2.24)

0.00

100.84

56.61 (54.17, 59.03)

≥3

99.89 (99.40, 100.0)

1.96 (1.07, 3.26)

1.02 (0.61, 1.71)

0.06 (0.01, 0.43)

101.85

57.04 (54.60, 59.45)

≥4

99.78 (99.22, 99.97)

3.36 (2.16, 4.95)

1.03 (0.70, 1.53)

0.06 (0.02, 0.24)

103.14

57.59 (55.15, 60.00)

≥5

99.78 (99.22, 99.97)

7.69 (5.85, 9.90)

1.08 (0.84, 1.39)

0.03 (0.01, 0.12)

107.47

59.49 (57.06, 61.88)

≥6

99.02 (98.15, 99.55)

16.78 (14.12, 19.73)

1.19 (1.01, 1.40)

0.06 (0.03, 0.12)

115.8

63.04 (60.64, 65.38)

≥7

96.95 (95.63, 97.97)

29.37 (26.05, 32.86)

1.37 (1.22, 1.54)

0.10 (0.07, 0.14)

126.32

67.38 (65.05, 69.65)

≥8

91.40 (89.40, 93.14)

41.82 (38.17, 45.53)

1.57 (1.44, 1.72)

0.21 (0.17, 0.26)

133.22

69.71 (67.41, 71.93)

≥9*

76.71 (73.84, 79.41)

65.03 (61.41, 68.53)

2.19 (2.05, 2.34)

0.36 (0.31, 0.42)

141.74

71.60 (69.35, 73.78)

≥10

54.84 (51.56, 58.09)

83.64 (80.72, 86.27)

3.35 (3.13, 3.58)

0.54 (0.45, 0.65)

138.48

67.44 (65.11, 69.71)

  1. Drinking >50 units of alcohol in past week
  2. *The ‘optimal’ and most accurate AUDIT-C cut-off score for identifying higher risk drinkers
  3. aLR+ positive likelihood ratio
  4. bLR− negative likelihood ratio