Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test

Technical Manual

Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 04, 2013

Last Modified: January 08, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements the original Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (MAST) with 25 YES/NO questions* for a self-assessment of social and vocational issues related to heavy drinking as published in Selzer (1971).

Note: The wording for questions 1, 3, 11, 12 was slightly modified for this script

References

Selzer, M.L. (1971). The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test: The quest for a new diagnostic instrument. Am J Psychiatry, 127, 1653-1658.

Duration

2 minutes

Description

Questionnaire with 25 binary yes-no questions.

Scoring

Totalscore:
The alcoholic responses to the different questions are weighted, with the least discriminatory alcoholic
responses receiving a 1, more serious discriminatory responses receiving a 2, and diagnostic responses
receiving a 5. Go to "Editable Parameters" to check/edit the default scoring for this questionnaire

Interpretation (Selzer, 1971)
• Totalscore <= 3: nonalcoholic
• Totalscore = 4 : suggestive of alcoholism
• Totalscore > 4: alcoholism

Summary Data

File Name: mast_summary*.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
totalScore Sum of all responses (The higher, the higher the 'alcoholic' response pattern)
q1-q25 Scores for individual items (using the default weights)

Raw Data

File Name: mast.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject Participant ID
group Group number
session Session number
build Inquisit version number
q*_response Response given (in assigned values)
Scale: yes - no
the numeric responses are stored in the summary data file,
responses can be weighted, see section Editable Parameters)
q*_latency How much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular
question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited)

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
The (Maximum) Score For The Alcoholic Response Per Question
q1MaxScore 2
q2MaxScore 2
q3MaxScore 1
q4MaxScore 2
q5MaxScore 1
q6MaxScore 2
q7MaxScore 0
q8MaxScore 2
q9MaxScore 5
q10MaxScore 1
q11MaxScore 2
q12MaxScore 2
q13MaxScore 2
q14MaxScore 2
q15MaxScore 2
q16MaxScore 2
q17MaxScore 1
q18MaxScore 2
q19MaxScore 2
q20MaxScore 5
q21MaxScore 5
q22MaxScore 2
q23MaxScore 2
q24MaxScore 2
q25MaxScore 2