Я использую следующий метод:
private boolean checkDataBase(){
SQLiteDatabase checkDB = null;
try{
String myPath = DB_PATH + DB_NAME;
checkDB = SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(myPath, null, SQLiteDatabase.OPEN_READWRITE);
long result = DatabaseUtils.longForQuery(checkDB,"SELECT count() FROM sqlite_master WHERE type='table' AND name='table_name'",null);
if(result == 0)
checkDB = null;
}catch(SQLiteException e){
Log.e("", e.getLocalizedMessage()+e.getMessage()+e.getCause()+
Arrays.toString(e.getStackTrace()));
}
if(checkDB != null){
checkDB.close();
}
return checkDB != null ? true : false;
}