10-item WHO screening tool for hazardous alcohol consumption and dependence. ≈ 3 min to complete. Free with attribution.
AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) is a validated clinical instrument used to assess 10-item who screening tool for hazardous alcohol consumption and dependence.. It is most often used for 10-item who screening tool for hazardous alcohol consumption and dependence.. The instrument contains 10 items. Typical administration time is ≈ 3 min.
Source / attribution: Free to use with citation
10-item WHO screening tool for hazardous alcohol consumption and dependence. AUDIT is part of standard practice in this setting because it provides a structured, replicable assessment that can be tracked over time and compared across patients or visits.
Like all screening or assessment instruments, AUDIT is a structured aid — not a diagnostic test in isolation. Results should be interpreted alongside history, examination, and clinical context. Where a score crosses an actionable threshold, the next step is typically a more detailed clinical evaluation rather than a definitive diagnosis.
Answer all 10 items below to see your AUDIT score and interpretation.
Each item is scored on a 5-point scale (0–4). Your score updates live as you answer.
All scoring runs in your browser. No data is sent anywhere — close the tab and the answers are gone.
Sum all 10 items scored 0-4. Total range 0-40. Higher scores indicate greater alcohol-related problems.
Scoring notes: Sum all 10 items scored 0-4. Total range 0-40. Higher scores indicate greater alcohol-related problems.
The cutoffs below are drawn from the published validation literature. Always interpret in clinical context.
| Score range | Band | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 0–7 | Low risk | Alcohol education |
| 8–15 | Hazardous use | Brief intervention |
| 16–19 | Harmful use | Brief intervention + counseling |
| 20–40 | Dependence | Referral for treatment |
This is an illustrative walkthrough, not a real patient. Follow the same four steps with your own answers — or use the live calculator at the top of this page.
Read each question and choose the response that best fits. Each response has a number next to it — that number is the item's score. The example below uses illustrative answers.
| # | Item | Example response | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How often do you have a drink containing alcohol? | 2-4 times a month | 2 |
| 2 | How many standard drinks on a typical day when you are drinking? | 5 or 6 | 2 |
| 3 | How often do you have 6 or more drinks on one occasion? | Monthly | 2 |
| 4 | How often during the last year have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started? | Monthly | 2 |
| 5 | How often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of drinking? | Monthly | 2 |
| 6 | How often during the last year have you needed a drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session? | Monthly | 2 |
| 7 | How often during the last year have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking? | Less than monthly | 1 |
| 8 | How often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because of your drinking? | Monthly | 2 |
| 9 | Have you or someone else been injured because of your drinking? | Yes, but not in the last year | 2 |
| 10 | Has a relative, friend, doctor, or other health care worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested you cut down? | No | 0 |
Add up all the item scores you noted in Step 1.
2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 0 = 17
Find the row in the interpretation table whose range contains your total:
Total = 17 falls between 16 and 19 → Harmful use
Harmful use. Brief intervention + counseling
A score is one input alongside history and examination. AUDIT supports clinical judgment — it does not replace it.
Psychometric figures are drawn from the validation literature and may vary across clinical populations and translations.
If AUDIT doesn't fit your context, related instruments in addiction include:
| Scale | Measures | Items | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUDIT-C | 3-item brief version of AUDIT for quick alcohol screening in clinical settings. | 3 | ≈ 1 min |
| CAGE | Classic 4-item screening test for alcohol problems. | 4 | ≈ 1 min |
| DAST-10 | 10-item brief screener for drug use problems excluding alcohol and tobacco. | 10 | ≈ 3 min |
| FTND | 6-item measure of nicotine dependence severity for smoking cessation planning. | 6 | ≈ 2 min |
| PHQ-9 | Severity of depression | 9 | ≈ 3 minutes |
| GAD-7 | Severity of generalized anxiety | 7 | ≈ 2 minutes |
| CHA2DS2-VASc | Annual stroke risk in non-valvular atrial fibrillation | 8 | — |
| Glasgow Coma Scale | Level of consciousness after head injury | 3 | — |
AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) is a validated instrument that assesses hazardous alcohol consumption and dependence. It is designed for clinicians, medical students, evidence-synthesis researchers. It takes about 3 min to complete, and the 10 items are summed to produce a total score.
AUDIT typically takes about 3 min to administer. The exact duration varies a little depending on whether it is self-administered or completed with a clinician. Its brief format is part of what makes it practical for routine clinical use and for repeat administration when tracking change over time.
AUDIT contains 10 items. Item scores are summed to produce the total. Scores run from 0 to 40, grouped into 4 interpretation bands from ‘Low risk’ up to ‘Dependence’.
On the AUDIT (total score 0–40), scores of 20–40 fall in the ‘Dependence’ band — interpreted as: Referral for treatment. The full ladder is: 0–7 — Low risk: Alcohol education.; 8–15 — Hazardous use: Brief intervention.; 16–19 — Harmful use: Brief intervention + counseling.; 20–40 — Dependence: Referral for treatment. A higher score reflects a more severe presentation, and crossing a cutoff is a prompt to step up assessment or care — but these bands are screening thresholds, not diagnoses.
Scores of 0–7 fall in the ‘Low risk’ band: Alcohol education. A low score is reassuring but does not by itself rule out the underlying condition — if symptoms or clinical suspicion persist, reassess over time or use a complementary evaluation rather than relying on the number alone.
AUDIT has reported Cronbach's α of 0.93 in validation samples and test–retest reliability of 0.88. Validated in primary care and community settings across cultures. In practical terms, a Cronbach’s α around 0.93 indicates excellent internal consistency (the items hang together well), and a test–retest reliability of 0.88 means scores are strongly stable when the scale is repeated without real clinical change.
AUDIT is free to use with attribution — clinical, educational, and research use is permitted provided the original source is credited. If you publish results or reproduce the scale, include the citation to the source paper.
Saunders, J. B., Aasland, O. G., Babor, T. F., de la Fuente, J. R., & Grant, M. (1993). Development of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Addiction, 88(6), 791-804. This is the original publication for the AUDIT — the reference to cite when reporting results.
No. AUDIT is a structured assessment aid, not a diagnostic test. Its proper role is clinical assessment of hazardous alcohol consumption and dependence — it standardizes assessment and flags who needs closer evaluation, but the result must be weighed alongside history, examination, and clinical context. When a score conflicts with your clinical impression, clinical judgment takes precedence; treatment decisions should never rest on a screening score alone.
AUDIT is supported by the following peer-reviewed sources: