Can 4 questions save the world?

Screening

Screening serves to identify something specific in relation to an individual. Usually, screening is used in the medical practice for the search of diseases. Effective screening methods prove both sensitive and specific meaning they can ID the people with the disease and those without properly. A good screening method would be a short and concise one that yields results.

A respectable example is the CAGE questionnaire for screening of drug and alcohol abuse. It has a sensitivity of 93 % and a specificity of 77 %.

CAGE is an acronym. Each letter symbolizes one of the four questions:
1. Have you felt you ought to Cut down on your drinking or drug use? Y/N
2. Have people Annoyed you by criticizing your drink/drug use? Y/N
3. Have you felt bad or Guilty about your drink/drug use? Y/N
4. Have you ever had a drink or used drugs first things in the morning to steady your nerves or to get over a hangover (Eye-opener)? Y/N
→ A score of 2 or more YES indicate further evaluation is needed.

Interestingly, CAGE’s % are enhanced by the 4th question: using drinking as an eye-opener. Indeed, a response of yes would indicate the presence of withdrawal symptoms (an important indication of dependence) and make it a critical component of the tool.

Research tells us the earlier a problem starts developmentally speaking, the worse it can be. However, the early it is caught, the earlier the problem can be dealt with.

The CAGE is a short, easy-to-use questionnaire that professionals can administer without training. However, this screening tool is still not widely use because it lacks propaganda. This situation is not unique. It represents a fragment of the problem testing faces today: the gap between research and practice.