ALCOHOL-CONSUMPTION AND INJURY IN THE GENERAL-POPULATION - FROM A NATIONAL SAMPLE

The association of alcohol consumption with injuries is well documente d in the literature. The majority of data for non-fatal injuries has c ome from emergency room (ER) studies, however, and little is known of how representative ER samples are of injuries in the general populatio n or of the actual risk at which drinking places the individual for ac cidental injury. Data were collected (1990) from a national probabilit y household sample (N = 2058; weighted N = 11 50) on: the respondent's most recent injury; whether treatment was obtained for that injury, a nd where; drinking prior to injury; quantity and frequency (Q-F) of us ual drinking; frequency of drunkenness; experiences associated with al cohol dependence; and social consequences related to drinking - all du ring the last year. Injury for the last year was categorized as follow s: without injury, untreated injury, injury treated in the ER, other t reated injury. Males treated in the ER were significantly more likely to be heavy drinkers and were more likely to report alcohol dependence experiences and social consequences related to drinking than those wi thout injuries, while females treated in the ER were more likely to re port social consequences related to drinking compared to those without injuries. Age (OR = 0.87) and Q-F (OR = 1.31) were found to be predic tive of reporting an injury during the last year. Among injured none o f these variables were predictive of reporting treatment. When the int eraction terms of Q-F by age and Q-F by gender were entered into the l ogistic regressions, only Q-F was predictive of an injury (OR = 1.54), while the interaction of Q-F by gender was significant for reporting a treated injury, with Q-F predictive among males (OR = 1.78), but not among females (OR = 1.26). The region of the country was not a signif icant predictor of injury or of treatment for an injury.