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Changes in injury‐related hospital emergency department presentations associated with the imposition of regulatory versus voluntary licensing conditions on licensed venues in two cities
Author(s) -
Miller Peter,
Curtis Ashlee,
Palmer Darren,
Busija Lucy,
Tindall Jennifer,
Droste Nicolas,
Gillham Karen,
Coomber Kerri,
Wiggers John
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1111/dar.12118
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , emergency department , alcohol consumption , medical emergency , turnover , intervention (counseling) , police department , medicine , emergency rooms , emergency medicine , environmental health , psychology , psychiatry , alcohol , biochemistry , chemistry , management , criminology , economics
and Aims Regulatory and collaborative intervention strategies have been developed to reduce the harms associated with alcohol consumption on licensed venues around the world, but there remains little research evidence regarding their comparative effectiveness. This paper describes concurrent changes in the number of night‐time injury‐related hospital emergency department presentations in two cities that implemented either a collaborative voluntary approach to reducing harms associated with licensed premises ( G eelong) or a regulatory approach ( N ewcastle). Design and Methods This paper reports findings from D ealing with A lcohol‐ R elated problems in the N ight‐ T ime E conomy project. Data were drawn from injury‐specific I nternational C lassification of D isease, 10th Revision codes for injuries ( S and T codes) presenting during high‐alcohol risk times (midnight—5.59 am, S aturday and S unday mornings) at the emergency departments in G eelong Hospital and N ewcastle ( J ohn H unter H ospital and the C alvary M ater H ospital), before and after the introduction of licensing conditions between the years of 2005 and 2011. Time‐series, seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average analyses were conducted on the data obtained from patients' medical records. Results Significant reductions in injury‐related presentations during high‐alcohol risk times were found for N ewcastle since the imposition of regulatory licensing conditions (344 attendances per year, P < 0.001). None of the interventions deployed in G eelong (e.g. identification scanners, police operations, radio networks or closed‐circuit television) were associated with reductions in emergency department presentations. Discussion and Conclusions The data suggest that mandatory interventions based on trading hours restrictions were associated with reduced emergency department injury presentations in high‐alcohol hours than voluntary interventions. [Miller P, Curtis A, Palmer D, Busija L, Tindall J, Droste N, Gillham K, Coomber K, Wiggers J. Changes in injury‐related hospital emergency department presentations associated with the imposition of regulatory versus voluntary licensing conditions on licensed venues in two cities. Drug Alcohol Rev 2014;33:314–322]*