Survey of alcohol-related presentations to Australasian emergency departments.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the proportion of alcohol-related presentations to emergency departments (EDs) in Australia and New Zealand, at a single time point on a weekend night shift.


METHODS
A point prevalence survey of ED patients either waiting to be seen or currently being seen conducted at 02:00 local time on 14 December 2013 in 106 EDs in Australia and New Zealand.


METHODS
The number of ED presentations that were alcohol-related, defined using World Health Organization ICD-10 codes.


RESULTS
At the 106 hospitals (92 Australia, 14 New Zealand) that provided data, 395 (14.3%; 95% CI, 13.0%-15.6%) of 2766 patients in EDs at the study time were presenting for alcohol-related reasons; 13.8% (95% CI, 12.5%-15.2%) in Australia and 17.9% (95% CI, 13.9%-22.8%) in New Zealand. The distribution was skewed left, with proportions ranging from 0 to 50% and a median of 12.5%. Nine Australian hospitals and one New Zealand hospital reported that more than a third of their ED patients had alcohol-related presentations; the Northern Territory (38.1%) and Western Australia (21.1%) reported the highest proportions of alcohol-related presentations.


CONCLUSIONS
One in seven ED presentations in Australian and New Zealand at this 02:00 snapshot were alcohol-related, with some EDs seeing more than one in three alcohol-related presentations. This confirms that alcohol-related presentations to EDs are currently underreported and makes a strong case for public health initiatives.
Monash Medical Centre Emergency Department, Monash Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. angela.wadsworth@acem.org.au.
Diana
D
Egerton-Warburton
Policy and Research, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Andrew
A
Gosbell
Policy and Research, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Angela
A
Wadsworth
University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
Daniel M
DM
Fatovich
Emergency Department, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
Drew B
DB
Richardson
D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D044362:Australasia / Q000453:epidemiology; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence