DRINKING IN THE INJURY EVENT - A COMPARISON OF EMERGENCY ROOM POPULATIONS IN THE UNITED-STATES, MEXICO, AND SPAIN

Variables related to drinking in the injury event were compared among probability samples of emergency room patients in Contra Costa County, California (N = 1,001), Mexico City (N = 1,688) and Barcelona, Spain (N = 1,684). Drinking companions and places of drinking prior to injur y, place of injury associated with drinking, amount of alcohol consume d, proximity of drinking with the injury event, perceived drunkenness at the time, and causal attribution of drinking with the event were al l found to vary among the samples. The data suggest that the context i n which alcohol is involved in the injury event is affected by the con text in which alcohol is typically consumed in a culture and is import ant in analyzing alcohol's role in injury occurrence and situations wh ich may be considered high-risk for alcohol-related injuries.