Substance abuse
The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-C
(AUDIT-C)20 was used to collect information about
alcohol use and the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND)
information about cigarette smoking21. The AUDIT-C is
a 3-item version of the longer AUDIT scale20. Studies
have found high comparability between the AUDIT-C and the full
AUDIT22.
The FTND is an instrument used to assess the intensity of physical
addiction to nicotine21. The measure consists of 6
questions with scores of 0 to 1 for yes/no items and scores of 0-3 for
multiple-choice items. The thresholds for dependence are the following:
scores 1-2: low, 3-4: low to moderate, 5-7: moderate, >8:
high. A limited number of substance abuse questions were completed by
caregivers resulting in missing data. For the FTND, only classification
of caregivers as smoker or non-smokers was possible.