ALCOHOL IN FATAL AND NONFATAL INJURIES - A COMPARISON OF CORONER AND EMERGENCY ROOM DATA FROM THE SAME COUNTY

Although alcohol is thought to be associated with severity of injury, relatively little data are available that compares alcohol's involveme nt in injury cases treated in the emergency room (ER) with coroner cas es of injury fatality, both coming from the same county. Data from a p robability sample of casualty patients 18 years and older treated at t he University of Mississippi Medical Center ER in Jackson during a g-m onth period (n = 275) are compared with data from coroner reports of a ll fatalities from unnatural causes among those 18 and older in the sa me county during a 1-year period surrounding the 6 months of data coll ection in the ER (n = 222). The two samples are compared on demographi c characteristics, cause of injury, place of injury, and alcohol use b efore the event. A significantly larger proportion of the coroner samp le was positive for alcohol (57%) and intoxicated (36%), compared with the proportion of those in the ER sample breathalyzed within 6 hr of injury, and reporting no drinking after the event who were positive (1 5%) and intoxicated (6%). Differences were most pronounced for motor v ehicle accidents and fires. Violence-related injuries were more likely in the coroner sample (32%) than in the ER sample (16%), and they wer e more likely to involve alcohol at levels of intoxication. Those in t he coroner sample were also more likely to be alcohol-positive for inj uries occurring in all places except the home of another and the workp lace. Using logistic regression, gender (male) and site (coroner) were predictive of a positive blood alcohol across all causes of injury co mbined. Gender (female), being alcohol-positive and site (coroner) wer e significantly predictive of motor vehicle accidents. Alcohol was not found to be a significant predictor for falls, other accidents, or in juries resulting from violence. Data suggest that alcohol's associatio n with severity of injury varies by cause of injury.