Alcohol and violence in the emergency department: a regional report from the WHO collaborative study on alcohol and injuries.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the relative risk (RR) of non-fatal unintentional and violence-related injury associated with alcohol consumption in three emergency departments in Latin America (2001-2002).


METHODS
Pair-matched case-crossover was used to obtain RR estimates for alcohol in non-fatal injuries among 447 patients in Argentina (A), 489 in Brazil (B) and 455 in Mexico (M). Intentional (violence) or unintentional (non-violence) injury status were the main outcomes.


RESULTS
About 46% of violence-related cases involved alcohol (versus 11.5% for non-violence related cases). The risk of violence-related injury increased with drinking and had an OR= 15.0 (95% confidence interval (CI), 5.8-39.1), with an OR= 4.2 (CI= 2.7-6.5) for unintentional injuries.


CONCLUSIONS
Increasing amounts of drinking may have pronounced consequences on the risk of triggering an injury, especially for a violence-related injury. The RR estimates provided here can be useful for new estimates on alcohol and the burden of disease.
Borges
Guilherme
G
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City, Mexico. guibor@imp.edu.mx
Orozco
Ricardo
R
Cremonte
Mariana
M
Buzi-Figlie
Neliana
N
Cherpitel
Cheryl
C
Poznyak
Vladimir
V
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001118:Argentina; D001938:Brazil; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D012306:Risk; D014754:Violence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014944:World Health Organization; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*