title: Cause of casualty and drinking patterns: an emergency room study of unintentional injuries.
abstract: A probability sample of 1494 adult casualty patients sampled in four hospitals in a single Californian county were breathalyzed and interviewed regarding the cause of injury, drinking prior to the injury, quantity and frequency of usual drinking, frequency of drunkenness and prior alcohol-related accidents. In the total sample, 9% were positive on the breathalyzer (4% were at or above 0.10), 17% reported drinking within 6 h prior to the injury, and 29% reported heavy drinking during the last year. Overall, 15% reported a prior alcohol-related accident and this was significantly greater among heavy drinkers than other drinkers. Cause of casualty (fall, cutting/piercing, motor vehicle accident, other collision, fire, other cause) in relation to alcohol consumption variables was analyzed separately in gender- and age-specific categories. Few significant associations were found between drinking variables and individual causes of injury. While these findings may be due to the relatively small number of cases for some causes, as well as to other variables not examined here including severity and type of injury, such baseline exploratory data are important in furthering our understanding of alcohol's involvement in casualty occurrence and point to the need for additional research on alcohol and causes of injury.
authors.affiliation: California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, Alcohol Research Group, Berkeley 94709.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Cherpitel
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001944:Breath Tests; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D015984:Causality; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000431:Ethanol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol