The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST-Lite): translation and reliability of the Malay version

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Early screening and interventions are necessary to curb the negative consequences of youth substance use. ASSIST-Lite is the short form of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST 3.0) for rapid screening of substance-use disorder. This study aims to translate and validate the ASSIST-Lite questionnaire into the Malay language. Methods The ASSIST-Lite instrument, consisting of 6 main components with 3–4 items and two extra items was translated via the forward-backward process. Face and content validity was assessed by expert panels from relevant fields. Internal reliability was measured using Kuder-Richardson 20, and test-retest reliability was measured using Cohen’s Kappa. Results The item level of content validity index (I-CVI) is 1.00 for all items. There were 511 respondents, and a majority were Malays. The age range was 13 to 49 years old, with a mean age of 17 (SD = 6.392). Both internal and test-retest reliability showed satisfactory results with alpha value between 0.772 to 0.882 and Kappa value between 0.8 to 1, respectively. Conclusions The Malay version of ASSIST-Lite is reliable to screen substance use and its severity risk. However, further studies are required to evaluate its sensitivity and effectiveness in the clinical setting.