Instruments for the Evaluation of Alcohol Use in Indigenous Communities – A Systematic Review

Abstract The measurement of alcohol consumption in indigenous populations has been important in order to understand their reasons and thoughts on alcohol use as well as the resulting losses. This study aimed to verify which data collection instruments are nationally and internationally used in the evaluation of alcohol use in indigenous populations, and it was conducted through a systematic review of studies that evaluated alcoholism in the indigenous populations. We searched the databases Medline (Pubmed), Cochrane library, PsycINFO, Lilacs, including gray literature and manual search. A total of 716 selected publications were identified, and after a stepwise evaluation, the final analysis included 30 studies that met the inclusion criteria. Twenty different instruments were used in the studies to evaluate alcohol use in indigenous people, such as questionnaires created from the specificities of the groups and instruments common used in non-indigenous groups, World Health Organization recommends some of them. By allowing greater knowledge about the instruments validated to understand the consumption of alcoholic beverage in these populations, this study contributes to the research about the processes of indigenous alcoholization, allowing a progress in the development of interventions. It also provides an important discussion in the area of psychological assessment and the use of instruments in different cultural contexts.