Factor analysis of alcohol abuse and dependence symptom items in the 1988 National Health Interview Survey.

The findings presented in this report are of general interest for the development of survey instruments for alcohol use disorders. They show which items represent the same dimension of alcohol problems when presented to respondents in a general population survey setting. The note determines the major dimensions underlying the complete set of 41 symptom items in the 1988 National Health Interview Survey, relates the item sets of the DSM- and ICD-criteria to these dimensions, and studies the measurement characteristics of items not used for DSM- or ICD-criteria.