Preventing the Consequences of Alcohol Abuse: Identification of Soldiers at High Risk for Fatal and Serious Injuries

: The main goal of this study is to improve our understanding of the relationship between alcohol problems and risk of serious injury by documenting the prevalence of alcohol-related diagnoses among soldiers admitted to the hospital with and without injuries. In this study's first year we have formulated diagnostic criteria for identifying alcohol- and injury-related hospitalizations and verified the continuity of diagnostic codes between the ICD-9 and the ICD-9-CM. Additionally, we have developed a method to identify unique alcohol-related hospitalizations using episodes of care in order to improve the accuracy of the frequency and prevalence estimates for alcohol-related diagnoses within the Army. Descriptive analyses of the prevalence of hospitalizations and characteristics of soldiers hospitalized for alcohol abuse have begun. Analyses comparing Army and civilian alcohol-related hospitalizations are also underway. The work to date highlights the importance of an expanded list of alcohol-related diagnostic criteria to ensure complete case ascertainment, and the necessity of constructing a valid episode of care methodology in order to obtain accurate estimates of alcohol-related hospitalizations.