Validation of the Chinese Version of Penn Alcohol Craving Scale for Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder
- Author:
Yu-Yu KO
1
;
Su-Chen FANG
;
Wei-Chien HUANG
;
Ming-Chyi HUANG
;
Hu-Ming CHANG
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- From:Psychiatry Investigation 2024;21(2):159-164
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:EN
-
Abstract:
Objective:The Penn Alcohol Craving Scale (PACS) is a five-item, single-dimension questionnaire that is used to measure a patient’s alcohol craving. We sought to develop the Chinese version of the PACS (PACS-C) and assess its reliability and validity.
Methods:A total of 160 Taiwanese patients with alcohol use disorder were enrolled in this study. The internal consistency and concurrent validity of the PASC-C with the visual analogue scale (VAS) for craving, the Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale for heavy drinking (YBOCS-hd), and the Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ) were assessed. The test–retest reliability of the PASC-C was evaluated 1 day after the baseline measurements. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to examine the psychometric properties of the PACS-C.
Results:The PACS-C exhibited good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α=0.95) and test–retest reliability (r=0.97). This scale showed high correlations with the VAS (r=0.81) and YBOCS-hd (r=0.81 and 0.79 for the obsession and compulsion subscales, respectively), and moderate correlation with the SADQ-C (r=0.47). Furthermore, CFA results revealed that the PACS-C had good fit indices under various models.
Conclusion:The PACS-C appears to be a reliable and valid tool for assessing alcohol craving in patients with alcohol use disorder in Taiwan.
