1. Diagnostic Discrimination of Social Network Indicators in Alcohol Use Disorder: Initial Examination Using High-Resolution and Brief Assessments.
- Author
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Levitt, Emily E., Singh, Desmond, Clifton, Allan, Stout, Robert, Sweet, Lawrence, Kelly, John F., and MacKillop, James
- Abstract
Objective: Social network analysis (SNA) characterizes the structure and composition of a person's social relationships. Network features have been associated with alcohol consumption in observational studies, primarily of university undergraduates. No studies have investigated whether indicators from a person's social network can accurately identify the presence of alcohol use disorder (AUD), offering an indirect strategy for identifying AUD. Method: Two cross-sectional case–control designs examined the clinical utility of social network indicators for identifying individuals with AUD (cases) versus demographically matched drinkers without AUD (controls). Study 1 (N = 174) used high-resolution egocentric SNA assessment, whereas Study 2 (N = 189) used a brief assessment. Results: In Study 1, significant differences between AUD+ participants and controls were present for network alcohol severity (i.e., heavy drinking days; d = 1.23) and frequency (d = 0.35), but not network structural features. Network alcohol severity exhibited very good classification of AUD+ individuals versus controls (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.80), whereas network frequency did not (AUC = 0.61). In Study 2, significant differences were present for network alcohol severity (d = 1.02), quantity (d = 0.74), and frequency (d = 0.43), and severity exhibited good differentiation (AUC = 0.76). Conclusions: Social network indicators of alcohol involvement robustly differentiated AUD+ individuals from matched controls, and the brief assessment performed almost as well as the high-resolution assessment. These findings provide proof-of-concept for severity-related SNA indicators as promising novel clinical assessments for AUD. Public Health Significance Statement: This study finds that the severity of alcohol misuse a person estimates in their social network can in turn validly identify the person's AUD diagnostic status. The findings also suggest that a brief measure, reflecting alcohol use in a person's closest social group, is similarly informative to indicators from a person's more expansive social network. These results suggest that egocentric social network indicators have promise as clinical assessments in AUD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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