CAGE Questionnaire: Brief Alcohol Screening
The CAGE questionnaire screens for alcohol dependence with four yes or no questions that take under a minute to ask.
CAGE Questionnaire
The CAGE questionnaire is a four item screen for alcohol problems. The name is an acronym for its four questions about cutting down, annoyance at criticism, guilt and the need for an eye-opener drink. Two or more positive answers is the usual threshold for further assessment.
Category
Disease
Source
What is the CAGE Questionnaire
CAGE asks four questions: have you ever felt you should Cut down on your drinking; have people Annoyed you by criticising your drinking; have you ever felt bad or Guilty about your drinking; and have you ever had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover, the Eye-opener. Each is answered yes or no.
Its strength is brevity, which is why it survives in settings where a longer instrument would not get asked at all. Its limitations are well documented and worth knowing before it is chosen. The questions have a lifetime frame rather than a current one, so a person in long term recovery can screen positive. It is oriented toward dependence rather than hazardous drinking, and it performs poorly at detecting heavy drinking that has not yet caused the consequences the questions ask about, which makes it less useful in younger populations and in women.
Each yes scores one point, for a total from zero to four. Two or more is the conventional threshold for a positive screen and an indication for a fuller assessment. Some settings use one or more where sensitivity matters more than specificity.
The CAGE identifies people who need further assessment. It does not quantify consumption, does not distinguish current from past problems, and is not a diagnosis. Where the question is how much someone is drinking now, a consumption-based instrument answers it better. The CAGE-AID variant extends the same four questions to drug use and is a separate instrument.
Advantages
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Streamlines research data gathering process.
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Quick completion with minimal burden.
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Identifies health issues during initial stages.
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Serves diverse clinical needs effectively.
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Related Instruments
Digital counterpart
Digital biomarkers that measure the same thing with sensors rather than a questionnaire.
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