The questionnaire takes less than one minute to administer,[1] and is often used in primary care or other general settings as a quick screening tool rather than as an in-depth interview for those who have alcoholism.
The CAGE questionnaire does not have a specific intended population, and is meant to find those who drink excessively and need treatment.
[3] It has been validated via receiver operating characteristic analysis, establishing its ability to screen for problem drinking behaviors.
[4] The CAGE questionnaire was developed in 1968 at North Carolina Memorial Hospital to combat the paucity of screening measures to detect problem drinking behaviors.
Because talking about drinking behavior can be uncomfortable or stigmatized, people's responses may be subject to social desirability bias.