A literature review revealed no studies that utilized past opioids as a variable in their studies. However, there are many instruments that measure present opioid misuse. The first part will review three validated instruments.
First, the Current Opioid Misuse Measure (COMM) is a commonly used instrument to measure opioid misuse in all populations. It is an instrument consisting of 17 items. Even though it is a self-reported questionnaire, it has been validated for screening purposes by numerous research (Butler et al., 2007; Butler et al., 2010; Meltzer, 2011; Rogers, 2020). However, it should be mentioned that the instrument is used to measure abuse only. There is also a shortened version of the questionnaire with nine items called COMM-9, which was validated recently. (McCaffrey et al., 2019)
Second, Addiction Behaviors Checklist (ABC) has also proven to be a valid instrument for measuring opioid abuse (Wu et al., 2006). It is a twenty-item questionnaire used to measure addiction to opioids among patients on pain control therapy. Even though it is a validated tool, it has not been used in recent studies.
Third, Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients with Pain (SOAPP) can be used to measure opioid abuse. There are two versions of the instrument with 24 and 14 items (Butler et al., 2004). Finkelman et al. (2017) validated an even shorter version of the questionnaire (12 items) recently. Thus, the latest version can be used for measuring opioid abuse.
However, considering the purpose of the study, the use of all the instruments is limited, as they measure current opioid abuse, while the study aims to measure past opioid use for any purpose.
Academic achievement can be measured both qualitatively and quantitatively. The most frequently used measure for academic achievement in quantitative studies is the current GPA of students. Even if the studies use other measures to quantify academic achievement (Bryan et al., 2014; Clark et al., 2020; Fonteyne et al., 2017; Novikova & Vorobyeva, 2017). However, other measures were used in various studies to attend to the associated flaws of the measure. For instance, Bryan et al. (2014) used the concept of academic problems to assess students’ achievement. The variable was measured by asking how frequently the students had late assignments, low grades, failed exams, and skipped classes. Even though this measure is applicable, the authors do not provide validation of the questionnaire assessing the variable. Fonteyne et al. (2017) also use a binary variable that demonstrates if the students passed the previous semester. However, the use of this measure is questionable when assessing the academic achievement of those students who have already graduated. In summary, even though there are other measures of academic achievement, GPA is the most consistent and validated method among the substitutes. However, supplementary measures for operationalizing academic achievement can be considered to improve the reliability of findings.
References
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