The longitudinal pattern of alcohol-related injury in a college population: emergency department data compared to self-reported data.
BACKGROUND
Self-report survey is the most common method of obtaining information from college students on substance use and its consequences. However, the validity and reliability of self-report data, especially in relationship to harmful substance use, is frequently called into question.


OBJECTIVE
To establish the convergent validity of self-reported alcohol-related injury data and data from a university-affiliated hospital Emergency Department (ED) across a seven year period. (2) To examine the trend lines for relative risk of alcohol-related injury.


METHODS
Two existing data sets at a major public university are compared: records of 1,253 ED admissions for alcohol-related reasons and 13,518 survey responses. Convergent validity is evaluated with the Pearson correlation coefficients of the two data sets for 2001/2002 through 2007/2008. Longitudinal trends for each data set are evaluated by change in relative risk.


RESULTS
Over the seven years, 51% of ED visits for alcohol-related reasons were due to injury, and 14% of survey respondents who drank alcohol reported alcohol-related injury. Both decreased significantly over the years: from 62% to 45% for ED reports and from 24% to 9% for self reports. ED visits for alcohol-related injury and self-reported alcohol-related injury are highly correlated: r = .67, 45% shared variance.


CONCLUSIONS
The comparison establishes convergent validity for the self-report data and decreased rates of alcohol-related injury.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings support the validity in college populations of self-report data about negative consequences associated with drinking alcohol.
Turner
James
J
National Social Norms Institute and Elson Student Health Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22902, USA.
Keller
Adrienne
A
Bauerle
Jennifer
J
D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013333:Student Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult