Historique
Article de Périodique
The accuracy of self-reported data concerning recent cannabis use in the French armed forces (2013)
Auteur(s) :
A. MAYET ;
M. ESVAN ;
C. MARIMOUTOU ;
R. HAUS-CHEYMOL ;
C. VERRET ;
L. OLLIVIER ;
J. B. MEYNARD ;
R. MICHEL ;
J. P. BOUTIN ;
X. DEPARIS ;
R. MIGLIANI
Article en page(s) :
328-332
Refs biblio. :
22
Domaine :
Drogues illicites / Illicit drugs
Langue(s) :
Anglais
Discipline :
EPI (Epidémiologie / Epidemiology)
Thésaurus mots-clés
SENSIBILITE
;
ARMEE
;
CANNABIS
;
AUTOEVALUATION
;
FIABILITE
;
ETUDE TRANSVERSALE
;
DEPISTAGE
;
TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL
;
PREVALENCE
;
TEST
;
URINE
Thésaurus géographique
FRANCE
Résumé :
Background: The aims were to evaluate the accuracy of self-report of past-month cannabis use in a representative sample of French military staff members and to evaluate the scale of the prevarication bias.
Method: Data from three cross-sectional surveys conducted between 2005 and 2008 (n = 3493) were used. The characteristics of self-report (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value) were computed using tetrahydrocannabinol detection in urine as the reference.
Results: The prevalence for past-month cannabis use was 16.1% and for positive testing was 13.4%. The discriminant power of self-report was good, with an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve 0.90. Specificity (94.5%) and negative predictive values (97.8%) were good, but sensitivity (85.7%) and positive predictive values (70.4%) were lower. The lowest sensitivity values were observed in the higher categories of personnel and in the Navy, which could reflect some prevarication in these sub-populations who might believe they were more exposed to sanctions if detected.
Conclusions: Despite certain limitations of urine analysis as a reference, because of its poor detection of occasional users, our study is in favour of good accuracy of self-reported data on cannabis use, even among the military. However, our results, derived from a population study, do not enable any assumptions on the validity of self-reported data collected during individual testing procedures for the purpose of improving occupational safety.
Key points:
• Cannabis use among military constitutes an important public health issue.
• The objective was to compare self-report of recent cannabis use with urine analyses.
• We concluded to good accuracy of self-reported data on cannabis use among the military.
• A greater degree of prevarication was suspected among higher-ranking personnel.
Method: Data from three cross-sectional surveys conducted between 2005 and 2008 (n = 3493) were used. The characteristics of self-report (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value) were computed using tetrahydrocannabinol detection in urine as the reference.
Results: The prevalence for past-month cannabis use was 16.1% and for positive testing was 13.4%. The discriminant power of self-report was good, with an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve 0.90. Specificity (94.5%) and negative predictive values (97.8%) were good, but sensitivity (85.7%) and positive predictive values (70.4%) were lower. The lowest sensitivity values were observed in the higher categories of personnel and in the Navy, which could reflect some prevarication in these sub-populations who might believe they were more exposed to sanctions if detected.
Conclusions: Despite certain limitations of urine analysis as a reference, because of its poor detection of occasional users, our study is in favour of good accuracy of self-reported data on cannabis use, even among the military. However, our results, derived from a population study, do not enable any assumptions on the validity of self-reported data collected during individual testing procedures for the purpose of improving occupational safety.
Key points:
• Cannabis use among military constitutes an important public health issue.
• The objective was to compare self-report of recent cannabis use with urine analyses.
• We concluded to good accuracy of self-reported data on cannabis use among the military.
• A greater degree of prevarication was suspected among higher-ranking personnel.
Affiliation :
Centre d'épidémiologie et de santé publique des armées, Ministère de la défense / Service de santé des armées, Saint Mandé, France