Validation of a multisubstance online Timeline Followback assessment

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Abstract

Objectives

The Timeline Followback (TLFB) was originally developed to assess alcohol consumption patterns ( American Journal of Public Health, 86, 1996, 966) and has been increasingly modified for Web‐based use. Additionally, new modes of substance use administration have emerged, creating a need for an adaptable TLFB tool than can capture data such as cannabis product potency or prescription drug use. Our goal was to validate an online TLFB that reliably assesses a wide range of substances in greater detail.

Methods

Using a within‐subjects counterbalanced design, daily substance use data were collected from 50 college students over a 14‐day retrospective period using both the traditional in‐person TLFB and online TLFB (O‐TLFB).

Results

All substance use variables, including detailed measures of cannabis metrics, correlated significantly ( r's ranged from .653 to .944, p < .001) between TLFB versions. Further, results demonstrated that both the online TLFB and in‐person TLFB demonstrated concurrent validity with both the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Marijuana Dependence Scale (MDS).

Conclusion

Overall, the data suggest that this new O‐TLFB demonstrates strong reliability and delivers a versatile and secure tool for substance use assessment that is relevant to a variety of biomedical and psychological research contexts.

Abstract

Using a within‐subjects counterbalanced design, a new online Timeline Followback (TLFB) tool was validated against the in‐person TLFB and other measures of substance use. Substance use variables, including detailed measures of cannabis metrics, correlated significantly between TLFB versions, suggesting the new online TLFB is an accessible, versatile, and secure tool for substance use assessment that is relevant to a variety of biomedical and psychological research contexts.

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Most cited references 43

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Do multiple outcome measures require p-value adjustment?

Ronald Feise (2002)

Background Readers may question the interpretation of findings in clinical trials when multiple outcome measures are used without adjustment of the p-value. This question arises because of the increased risk of Type I errors (findings of false "significance") when multiple simultaneous hypotheses are tested at set p-values. The primary aim of this study was to estimate the need to make appropriate p-value adjustments in clinical trials to compensate for a possible increased risk in committing Type I errors when multiple outcome measures are used. Discussion The classicists believe that the chance of finding at least one test statistically significant due to chance and incorrectly declaring a difference increases as the number of comparisons increases. The rationalists have the following objections to that theory: 1) P-value adjustments are calculated based on how many tests are to be considered, and that number has been defined arbitrarily and variably; 2) P-value adjustments reduce the chance of making type I errors, but they increase the chance of making type II errors or needing to increase the sample size. Summary Readers should balance a study's statistical significance with the magnitude of effect, the quality of the study and with findings from other studies. Researchers facing multiple outcome measures might want to either select a primary outcome measure or use a global assessment measure, rather than adjusting the p-value.

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Reliability of the Timeline Followback for cocaine, cannabis, and cigarette use.

Sean M. Robinson, Linda Carter Sobell, Mark Sobell … (2014)

The Timeline Followback (TLFB), a retrospective calendar-based measure of daily substance use, was initially developed to obtain self-reports of alcohol use. Since its inception it has undergone extensive evaluation across diverse populations and is considered the most psychometrically sound self-report measure of drinking. Although the TLFB has been extended to other behaviors, its psychometric evaluation with other addictive behaviors has not been as extensive as for alcohol use. The present study evaluated the test-retest reliability of the TLFB for cocaine, cannabis, and cigarette use for participants recruited from outpatient alcohol and drug treatment programs and the general community across intervals ranging from 30 to 360 days prior to the interview. The dependent measure for cigarette smokers and cannabis users was daily use of cigarettes and joints, respectively, and for cocaine users it was a "Yes" or "No" regarding cocaine use for each day. The TLFB was administered in different formats for different drug types. Different interviewers conducted the two interviews. The TLFB collected highly reliable information about participants' daily use of cocaine, cannabis, and cigarettes from 30, 90, to 360 days prior to the interview. Findings from this study not only suggest that shorter time intervals (e.g., 90 days) can be used with little loss of accuracy, but also add to the growing literature that the TLFB can be used with confidence to collect psychometrically sound information about substance use (i.e., cocaine, cannabis, cigarettes) other than alcohol in treatment- and nontreatment-seeking populations for intervals from ranging up to 12 months prior to the interview.

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The timeline followback reports of psychoactive substance use by drug-abusing patients: psychometric properties.

William Fals-Stewart, Timothy J. O'Farrell, Timothy T. Freitas … (2000)

The Timeline Followback (TLFB; L. C. Sobell & M. B. Sobell, 1996) interview, which uses a calendar method developed to evaluate daily patterns and frequency of drinking behavior over a specified time period, has well-established reliability and validity for assessing alcohol consumption. Although several investigators have used the TLFB to evaluate drug-using behavior, few studies have examined the psychometric properties of the interview for this purpose. The authors conducted TLFB interviews with a sample of adult drug-abusing patients seeking treatment for substance abuse (n = 113) at baseline, posttreatment, and quarterly thereafter for 12 months. It was found that the patients' reports about their drug consumption using this method generally had high (a) retest reliability, (b) convergent and discriminant validity with other measures, (c) agreement with collateral informants' reports of patients' substance use, and (d) agreement with results from patients' urine assays.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Renée Martin‐Willett:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8940-8587

renee.martinwillett@colorado.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Brain Behav

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Brain Behav

Journal ID (doi): 10.1002/(ISSN)2157-9032

Journal ID (publisher-id): BRB3

Title: Brain and Behavior

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )

ISSN (Electronic): 2162-3279

Publication date (Electronic): 02 December 2019

Publication date Collection: January 2020

Volume: 10

Issue: 1 ( doiID: 10.1002/brb3.v10.1 )

Electronic Location Identifier: e01486

Affiliations

[ ¹ ] The University of Colorado Boulder Boulder Colorado

Author notes

[*] [* ] Correspondence

Renée Martin‐Willett, Center for Health and Neuroscience, Genes, and Environment (CUChange), Institute of Cognitive Science and Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, 1777 Exposition Drive Ste. 224, Boulder, CO 80301.

Email: renee.martinwillett@ 123456colorado.edu

Author information

Renée Martin‐Willett https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8940-8587

Timothy Helmuth https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7002-5997

Article

Publisher ID: BRB31486

DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1486

PMC ID: 6955818

PubMed ID: 31793226

SO-VID: eb5defa2-cb49-40bc-9ff1-d0e10c9b58cb

License:

This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

History

Date received : 01 July 2019

Date revision received : 26 September 2019

Date accepted : 01 November 2019

Page count

Figures: 2, Tables: 2, Pages: 10, Words: 7357

Funding

Funded by: University of Colorado Boulder , open-funder-registry 10.13039/100007493;

Funded by: NIH , open-funder-registry 10.13039/100000002;

Award ID: R01DA04413

Custom metadata

source-schema-version-number 2.0

cover-date January 2020

details-of-publishers-convertor Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_JATSPMC version:5.7.4 mode:remove_FC converted:13.01.2020

ScienceOpen disciplines: Neurosciences

Keywords: alcohol,cannabis,online assessment,substance use,timeline followback

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Neurosciences

Keywords: alcohol, cannabis, online assessment, substance use, timeline followback

Validation of a multisubstance online Timeline Followback assessment

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Most cited references 43

Do multiple outcome measures require p-value adjustment?

Reliability of the Timeline Followback for cocaine, cannabis, and cigarette use.

The timeline followback reports of psychoactive substance use by drug-abusing patients: psychometric properties.

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