[Hospital emergency events related with alcohol consumption in young. Castile and Leon, Spain]

Excessive alcohol consumption (regular or binge drinking) in adolescents produces physical and psychological alterations. The objective is to know its size, timing, distribution, profile and main category diagnostic of emergency department related to the consumption of alcohol in youngster people.

It´s an observational analytic study of hospital emergency related to alcohol consumption in young (10-30 years), in Castile and León hospitals, between 2003 and 2010. It is used the χ2 for comparison of proportions (significance p<0.05).

4.429 emergency hospital episodes related with consumption of alcohol have been analyced. The 59.5% of episodes have been registered in men and the 68.1% in the group of 18-30 years (p=0.000). There are 3.424 episodes at the weekend, and 1.005 during the week, no differences by sexes (p<0.05). The weekend raises more cases in youngster under 18 years (85,3%) than in 18-30 years (73,6%) (p=0.000). Acute alcohol intoxication is more common in <18 years (94,2%) than in 18-30 years (84,8%) (p=0.000), although between 18-30 years more harmful use (10,7%) and dependence (3,5%) is detected (p=0.000). The medical discharge is more common in women (89,9%) (p=0.000) and <18 years (p=0.000).

The largest number of cases is detected in men of 18-30 years; besides, it is more severe than in under eighteen people. An increase in women emergency is detected with respect to men in under eighteen people. The most important diagnostic is acute alcohol intoxication, and more of them don´t need admission.