Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-10)

Alcohol screening works best when it separates drinking volume from signs that alcohol is already causing harm. Someone who drinks often but has no injuries, memory gaps, or loss-of-control symptoms may need a different conversation from someone with a similar total score and recent alcohol-related injury. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, usually shortened to AUDIT, was built for that kind of structured first pass.

AUDIT uses ten past-year questions. The first three ask about drinking frequency, usual quantity, and heavy-drinking occasions. The next three ask about dependence-pattern experiences such as not being able to stop, failing expected duties, or needing a morning drink after heavy drinking. The last four ask about consequences, including guilt, memory loss, injury, and concern from another person.

Consumption

How much and how often alcohol is being used, including six-or-more-drink occasions.

Dependence pattern

Signals that drinking may be harder to stop or may be disrupting normal responsibilities.

Alcohol-related harm

Consequences already experienced by the person or noticed by others.

The total score is useful because it gives a common scale from 0 to 40, but the item pattern matters. A score near the middle range can still deserve a more urgent review when the points come from morning drinking, inability to stop, injury, or recent concern from a relative, friend, doctor, or health worker. AUDIT guidance also expects clinical judgment because national drink sizes, local screening programs, age, sex, pregnancy, medication use, liver disease, withdrawal risk, and mental health context can all change what a score means in practice.

Common mistakes usually come from the drink count, not the arithmetic. A pint glass, a strong cocktail, a large wine pour, and a bottle of beer may not equal one standard drink. U.S. public health material commonly defines one standard drink as 14 grams of pure alcohol, while the WHO AUDIT form is used internationally and local definitions can differ. Keeping one drink definition throughout the questionnaire makes the score easier to interpret.

AUDIT is a screening instrument, not a diagnosis. It can flag hazardous drinking, harmful drinking, and possible dependence, but diagnosis and treatment planning require a qualified professional who can consider symptoms, medical history, withdrawal risk, safety, and the person's current circumstances.

How to Use This Tool:

Answer the ten AUDIT items for the past 12 months. Use the closest answer, keep the same standard-drink definition throughout, and finish the full set before treating the result as complete.

1. Select Begin Assessment to start the questionnaire and open the first AUDIT item.
2. Answer each item using the radio choice closest to the past-year pattern. The progress bar and question navigator show how many of the ten items are answered.
3. For Typical drinks and Heavy episodes, count standard drinks rather than container size or casual pour size.
4. If a question needs correction, use the question navigator to return to that item. The final score, WHO score band, domain maps, and ledgers update after the answer changes.
5. When the Follow-up snapshot appears, read the total score, raw WHO zone, follow-up lane, strongest domain, and priority signal before using any exported or shared result.
6. Open Follow-up action ledger, Priority signal ledger, Domain score ledger, Domain score map, Item pressure map, and Answer review when you need to explain which answers drove the result.

No final report appears until all ten answers are present. If the result is missing, check the progress label and the question navigator for an unanswered item.

Interpreting Results:

Start with the displayed total out of 40, then compare the Raw zone with the Follow-up lane. The raw zone comes directly from the score range. The follow-up lane can rise one level when selected dependence-pattern or recent-harm answers cross the AUDIT next-highest-level cue.

• Zone I, 0 to 7: lower-risk range where alcohol education is the usual guidance.
• Zone II, 8 to 15: hazardous-use range where simple advice is commonly relevant.
• Zone III, 16 to 19: harmful-use range where brief counseling and continued monitoring are commonly recommended.
• Zone IV, 20 to 40: possible-dependence range where referral for diagnostic evaluation and treatment review is commonly recommended.

The Strongest domain and Domain score map help identify whether the score is mostly consumption, dependence pattern, or harm. A consumption-heavy score often points toward drink limits and heavy-occasion planning. A dependence-pattern or harm-heavy score deserves a more direct safety and clinical review, even when the total is not in Zone IV.

Do not overread a low total as proof that alcohol is harmless for the person. Check the Priority signal ledger and Answer review for morning drinking, inability to stop, memory gaps, injury, outside concern, pregnancy-related risk, withdrawal symptoms, medication interactions, or any context that should be discussed with a professional.

Technical Details:

AUDIT-10 scoring is additive. Each item contributes a fixed number of points, and the total is the sum of all ten responses. Items 1 through 8 use a 0 to 4 scale. Items 9 and 10 use 0, 2, and 4 because they distinguish no event, an event before the last year, and an event during the last year.

The score is interpreted with two related structures. The first is the WHO score zone, which maps the total score to a usual intervention level. The second is item-pattern review, which prevents dependence-pattern symptoms or recent harm from being hidden inside a moderate total.

Formula Core

The displayed Total score is the sum of the ten item scores. In the equation, q_i is the point value for one AUDIT item.

For a response pattern of 2, 2, 2, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, and 0, the total is 8 out of 40. That lands exactly at the common AUDIT positive-screen threshold and in WHO Zone II before item cues are checked.

Score Construction

WHO Score Bands

The boundaries are inclusive. A score of 7 remains Zone I, 8 begins Zone II, 16 begins Zone III, and 20 begins Zone IV.

Follow-Up Cue Rules

Domain percentages use each domain's own maximum. A harm score of 8 out of 16 is 50% of that domain, while a consumption score of 8 out of 12 is 67% of that domain. Those percentages help compare where points are concentrated; they are not separate diagnostic scales.

Responsible Use Note:

AUDIT-10 is an informational screening instrument. It does not diagnose alcohol use disorder, withdrawal risk, liver disease, depression, trauma, medication interaction, pregnancy-related risk, or immediate safety needs.

• Seek urgent help for withdrawal symptoms, seizures, confusion, self-harm thoughts, unsafe driving risk, violence, or drinking that feels impossible to stop safely.
• Use professional judgment for treatment decisions, especially around scores of 15 to 20, recent injury, pregnancy, medical complications, or suspected dependence.
• Share copied links, CSV files, chart images, and DOCX exports only with people who should see sensitive alcohol-use information.

The questionnaire and scoring run in the browser. A shared result link can include the response pattern in the address, so treat copied links as private health-related information.

Worked Examples:

At the screening threshold. A person answers Q1 = 2, Q2 = 3, Q3 = 2, Q7 = 1, and 0 on the remaining items. The Total score is 8 out of 40, so the Raw zone becomes Zone II. If no dependence-pattern or recent-harm cue is present, the Follow-up lane also stays Zone II.

Moderate total with stopping difficulty. A score of 13 can remain in raw Zone II. If Loss of control scores 2, the Priority signal ledger shows a dependence-pattern cue and the Follow-up lane rises to Zone III.

Recent injury changes urgency. A raw score of 17 is Zone III. If Injury linked to drinking scores 4 because an injury happened during the last year, the recent-harm cue raises the Follow-up lane to Zone IV.

Missing answer before review. If nine items are answered and one is skipped, the final report does not appear. Use the progress label and question navigator to find the missing item before copying a CSV, sharing a link, or discussing the score.

FAQ:

Glossary:

AUDIT

Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, a ten-item screening instrument for hazardous drinking, harmful drinking, and possible dependence.

Standard drink

A measured amount of pure alcohol used to make quantity answers consistent across beverage types.

WHO zone

The score band that connects the AUDIT total with a usual level of alcohol education, advice, counseling, monitoring, or referral.

Consumption domain

Questions 1 to 3, focused on drinking frequency, usual amount, and heavy-drinking occasions.

Dependence pattern

Questions 4 to 6, focused on stopping difficulty, role disruption, and morning drinking.

Alcohol-related harm

Questions 7 to 10, focused on guilt, memory gaps, injury, and concern from others.

Follow-up lane

The displayed follow-up level after the raw WHO zone and selected dependence-pattern or recent-harm cues are considered.

References:

• AUDIT: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, Guidelines for Use in Primary Care, World Health Organization, 18 November 2001.
• Brief Intervention for Hazardous and Harmful Drinking, World Health Organization, 2001.
• Screen and Assess: Use Quick, Effective Methods, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
• What Is a Standard Drink?, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.