Development of a short ‘readiness to change’ questionnaire for use in brief, opportunistic interventions among excessive drinkers

TLDR

The study aimed to develop a 12‑item Readiness to Change questionnaire for excessive drinkers to facilitate brief, opportunistic interventions. The questionnaire was constructed from Prochaska and DiClemente’s stages of change model and demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties in a sample of 141 non‑help‑seeking drinkers. Principal component analysis confirmed distinct precontemplation, contemplation, and action factors, with adjacent stages showing higher inter‑correlations, and concurrent validation against cartoon choices and drinking‑behaviour screening was moderate to very good, indicating the tool is a concise, reliable measure for use in brief interventions.

Abstract

Abstract Excessive drinkers (141) identified in medical settings who were not seeking help for an alcohol problem completed a questionnaire based on Prochaska and DiClemente's stages of change model. Principal components analysis revealed a clear factor structure corresponding to the ‘precontemplation’, ‘contemplation’ and ‘action’ stages of change. On this basis, a 12‐item ‘Readiness to change’ questionnaire was developed with satisfactory psychometric properties. As predicted, scale scores on adjacent stages of change showed significantly higher inter‐correlations than scores on non‐adjacent stages. Concurrent validation by comparison with subjects' choices of cartoons depicting each of the stages of change and with screening questions regarding aspects of drinking behaviour was moderate to very good. The questionnaire provides a short and convenient measure of readiness to change which may be used in conjunction with brief, opportunistic interventions with excessive drinkers.