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Do Subjective Alcohol Screening Tools Correlate with Biomarkers Among High-Risk Transgender Women and Men Who Have Sex with Men in Lima, Peru?

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Abstract

Alcohol abuse can influence sexual risk behavior; however, its measurement is not straightforward. This study compared self-reported alcohol use, via the AUDIT and CAGE, with levels of phosphatidylethanol (Peth), a phospholipid biomarker that forms with chronic, heavy drinking, among high-risk MSM and TW in Lima, Peru. Chi square, Fisher’s exact, Wilcoxon ranksum tests compared the instruments. Receiver operating curves determined sensitivity and specificity of the self-reported measures. Among 69 MSM and 17 TW, PEth was positive for 86% (95% CI 77–93%) of participants, while 67% reported binge-drinking in the last 2 weeks. The AUDIT classified 25% as hazardous drinkers while CAGE identified 6% as problem drinkers. Self-reported binge drinking was more sensitive than the AUDIT for PEth positivity (71% vs. 27%, p = 0.022). Among high-risk MSM and TW in Lima, validated, self-report measures of alcohol abuse underestimated biological measures. Further research correlating bio-markers and self-reported alcohol abuse measures is needed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all study participants and staff for their contributions to this study. This study was partially funded by a seed grant from the UCLA AIDS Institute. We would also like to thank Jina Lee and Helen Houldsworth of the UCLA AIDS Institute for her assistance with study funding and obligations. Finally, we would like to thank Meghan Burke and Joseph Jones of the United States Drug Testing Laboratory for their assistance in obtaining and interpreting phosphatidylethanol test assays.

Funding

This research was funded by the UCLA Center for AIDS Research #AI028697 and by NIH 1R01AI099727 and NIH/NIMH R25MH087222.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Infectious Diseases, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    M. C. Herrera, K. A. Konda & J. D. Klausner

  2. Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Sexuality, Society, and AIDS, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru

    K. A. Konda, G. M. Calvo & C. F. Caceres

  3. Partners in Health, Lima, Peru

    S. R. Leon

  4. Department of Social Medicine and Population Health, UCR School of Medicine, Riverside, CA, USA

    B. Brown

  5. Alberto Barton Health Center, Health Directorate of Callao, Lima, Peru

    H. J. Salvatierra

  6. Division of Global Public Health, UCSD School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, USA

    R. Deiss

  7. Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    M. C. Herrera

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  1. M. C. Herrera
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  2. K. A. Konda
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Correspondence to M. C. Herrera.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. The institutional review board of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia approved the study.

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Herrera, M.C., Konda, K.A., Leon, S.R. et al. Do Subjective Alcohol Screening Tools Correlate with Biomarkers Among High-Risk Transgender Women and Men Who Have Sex with Men in Lima, Peru?. AIDS Behav 21 (Suppl 2), 253–261 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-017-1933-0

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