Measuring use of health services for at-risk drinkers: how brief can you get?

This study examines the validity, utility, and costs of using a brief telephone-administered instrument, the Brief Health Services Questionnaire (BHSQ), for self-reported health care provider contacts relative to collection and abstraction of complete medical records. The study sample was 441 community-dwelling at-risk drinkers who participated in an 18-month longitudinal study. Agreement between BHSQ self-reports and abstracted provider contacts was good to very good for general medical (79% agreement, kappa = .50) and specialty mental health contacts (93% agreement, kappa = .62), but low for "other" miscellaneous health contacts (61% agreement, kappa = .04). Average cost to collect and abstract complete medical records was 424 US dollars per study participant, whereas average cost to administer only the BHSQ was 31 US dollars per participant. Although it is not possible to conduct a formal cost-effectiveness analysis, results suggest the BHSQ is a viable option for collecting self-reported health provider contacts in a sample of at-risk drinkers, with definite cost advantages over more elaborate data collection methods.