Identifying and Validating Alcohol Diagnostics for Injury-Related Trauma in South Africa: Protocol for a Mixed...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Trauma Care
• Diagnostic Validation

Background:

• Alcohol use significantly burdens South African trauma departments.
• Routine measurement of alcohol's injury risk in trauma patients is lacking.
• There is a need for practical, cost-effective alcohol diagnostic tools for trauma care in South Africa.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate alcohol diagnostic tools for injury-related trauma.
• To assess the utility of these tools for national health policy and practice improvement.

Main Methods:

• Mixed-methods approach across three work packages.
• Focus groups with stakeholders to determine information needs.
• Validation of clinical assessment, breath analysis, and fingerprick blood tests against enzyme immunoassay in 1000 trauma patients.
• Testing in a district hospital setting with 1000 patients and community-based research.

Main Results:

• Pilot data collection is ongoing.
• Protocol refinement based on initial pilot findings.

Conclusions:

• The study aims to identify and validate optimal methods for diagnosing alcohol-related injuries in clinical settings.
• Findings are expected to influence policy makers and clinicians to adopt new alcohol testing practices.
• Dissemination includes government departments, policy experts, clinicians, media advocacy, and scientific publications.