Psychometric evaluation of a Swedish version of the Shortened Desires for Alcohol Questionnaire (Shortened-DAQ).

INTRODUCTION: Craving is a clinically important feature of alcohol use disorders (AUD), representing a diagnostic criterion as well as a target for treatment. The Desire for Alcohol Questionnaire (DAQ) is a widely used scale to measure craving. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Shortened-DAQ.

METHOD: The English DAQ was translated into Swedish and back translated to English. Individuals with a diagnosis of AUD (n=118) participated in a laboratory experiment comprising presentation of alcohol and non-alcohol cues, as well as consumption of an alcoholic drink, with the aim of exploring changes in the craving responses following pharmacological treatment for AUD. Subjective craving across the experimental conditions was recorded using Shortened-DAQ and a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The psychometric analysis of the Shortened-DAQ investigated some important aspects of reliability, validity and the factor solution using principal components analysis.

RESULTS: Cronbach's alphas were above 0.8 across all sessions, the test-retest correlations were statistically significant. In the alcohol cue session the Shortened-DAQ total score was significantly greater compared to the non-alcohol cue session, and correlated significantly with the VAS craving item across all sessions. The principal component analysis resulted in two significant factors comprised of (1) Alcohol desire and reinforcement and (2) Ability to control drinking. No difference in psychometric properties between treatment and placebo groups were found.

CONCLUSION: In future clinical studies on alcohol craving responses in Swedish patients with AUD, we suggest the use of the Swedish Shortened-DAQ, due to its comparably swift administration and overall acceptable psychometric properties.