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Alcohol and injuries: a review of international emergency room studies
Author(s) -
CHERPITEL CHERYL J.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1993.tb02110.x
Subject(s) - medicine , alcohol consumption , medical emergency , human factors and ergonomics , injury prevention , poison control , population , suicide prevention , occupational safety and health , alcohol , emergency department , environmental health , emergency medicine , psychiatry , pathology , biochemistry , chemistry
This paper reviews emergency room (ER) studies from a number of countries which have focused nn the association oj alcohol and casualties. The review emphasizes studies which used probability sample of patients to represent the population of the emergency facility where the data were collected, and which separated injured patients from patients with medical conditions not due to injuries (the ‘non‐injured’). Reviewed here are studies concerned with: (1) estimated prevalence of positive blood alcohol at the time of the ER visit; (2) self‐reported alcohol consumption prior to the event resulting in a need for ER treatment; (3) patients' descriptions of their usual drinking patterns and alcohol‐related problems; (4) predictions of casualties and of alcohol'related casualties. Comparisons of findings from several countries are also presented. Comments on limitations of ER studies as well as other issues pertaining to the usefulness and interpretation of such data, and future directions for research in emergency room populations are discussed.