title: Use of alcohol intoxication codes for serious non-fatal hospitalised injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the extent to which ICD-10 alcohol intoxication codes are used for serious hospitalised injury and the distribution of these codes according to gender, age, injury mechanism and intent, severity of injury, and whether the patient was treated in an Intensive Care Unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  New Zealand.
  
  
  METHODS
  All injury hospital discharges in 2010 that met specified severity criteria.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cases which had a measurement of BAC (Y90) coded, or only a subjective assessment of alcohol intoxication (F10.0).
  
  
  RESULTS
  2.5% had a blood alcohol recorded (Y90) and a further 3% were coded as being intoxicated but there was no blood alcohol code. All factors investigated were shown to be independently associated with the assignation of codes. Notable findings were the elevated odds of an alcohol code for males, assault and the more severe injuries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Assessment of alcohol intoxication among seriously injured persons appears to be very uncommon. The development of a standardised instrument for clinical judgement of intoxication would be highly desirable.
authors: Injury Prevention Research Unit, University of Otago, Injury Prevention Research Unit, Dept of Preventive and Social Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, PO Box 913 Dunedin, New Zealand. Electronic address: john.langley@otago.ac.nz.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Langley
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Gulliver
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Cryer
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Kypri
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Civil
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Davie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000379:methods*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012015:Reference Standards; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol
keywords: Alcohol; Coding; Hospitalisation; Indicators; Injury; Monitoring