[Relationship between injury and alcohol use in 531 patients in the emergency room]

To determine the relationship between injury risk and alcohol drinking.

Totally 531 patients (age ≥18 years) who were treated for the first time and came to the emergency room within 6 h after the injury were included. The American National Institute of Health questionnaire was used to investigate the trauma type, intentional injury, drinking before the injury, drinking volume, and drinking history in the past years and so on. The case-crossover method was used to analyze the data and relationship between alcohol drinking and injury.

Compared with the non-drinkers, subjects who drank alcohol 6 h before the injury had a higher risk of intentional injury (OR=2.79, 95%CI: 1.61-4.84). Male, drunken, patients with positive alcohol test results were more likely to suffer from intentional injury. Compared with the nondrinkers, victims who drank alcohol 6 h before injury had a higher risk of injury in traffic accidents (OR=2.41, 95%CI: 1.29-4.51). Compared with the non-drinkers, subjects who drank alcohol 6 h before injury had a higher risk of injury (OR=11.86, 95%CI: 5.48-25.65). Subjects who drank more than 6 standard drinks of alcohol 6 h before injury had much higher risks than non-drinkers (OR=24.52, 95%CI: 5.84-102.86).

Alcohol drinking before injury is associated with increased the risk of trauma, intentional injury and injury related to traffic accidents.