CAUSE OF CASUALTY AND DRINKING PATTERNS - AN EMERGENCY ROOM STUDY OF UNINTENTIONAL INJURIES

A probability sample of 1494 adult casualty patients sampled in four h ospitals in a single Californian county were breathalyzed and intervie wed regarding the cause of injury, drinking prior to the injury, quant ity and frequency of usual drinking, frequency of drunkenness and prio r alcohol-related accidents. In the total sample, 9% were positive on the breathalyzer (4% were at or above 0.10), 17% reported drinking wit hin 6 h prior to the injury, and 29% reported heavy drinking during th e last year. Overall, 15% reported a prior alcohol-related accident an d this was significantly greater among heavy drinkers than other drink ers. Cause of casualty (fall, cutting/piercing, motor vehicle accident , other collision, fire, other cause) in relation to alcohol consumpti on variables was analyzed separately in gender- and age-specific categ ories. Few significant associations were found between drinking variab les and individual causes of injury. While these findings may be due t o the relatively small number of cases for some causes, as well as to other variables not examined here including severity and type of injur y, such baseline exploratory data are important in furthering our unde rstanding of alcohol's involvement in casualty occurrence and point to the need for additional research on alcohol and causes of injury.