Risk of injury after alcohol consumption from case-crossover studies in five countries from the America’s

Source: Borges, G., Orozco, R., Monteiro, M., Cherpitel, C., Then, E. P., López, V. A., Bassier-Paltoo, M., Weil, D. A., … M de Bradshaw, A. (2012). Risk of injury after alcohol consumption from case-crossover studies in five countries from the Americas. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 108(1), 97-103.

Abstract

Aims

This study aimed to: 1) provide relative risk (RR) estimates between acute alcohol use and injuries from emergency departments in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Nicaragua and Panama, and 2) test whether the RR differs if two control periods for the estimates were used.

Design

Case-crossover methodology was used to obtain estimates of the RR of having an injury within six hours after drinking alcohol, using a pair-matching design with control periods of the same time of day the day prior to injury, and the same time of day and day of week the week prior to injury.

Setting

Emergency departments(EDs).

Participants

2,503 injured patients from EDs were interviewed between 2010–2011, with a response rate of 92.6%.

Measurements

Number of drinks consumed within six hours prior to the injury and in the two control periods.

Findings

The RR of injury after drinking alcohol was 4.38 (95% confidence interval CI= 3.29–5.84) using as the control period the prior week, and 5.35 (CI=3.50–8.17) using as a control period the prior day. The RR was 5.08 (CI=4.15–6.23) in multiple matching. Those drinking 1–2 drinks had a RR of 4.85 (CI=3.12–7.54); those drinking 3–5 a RR of 5.00 (CI =3.47–7.18); those drinking 6–15 a RR of 4.54 (CI=3.36–6.14); and those drinking 16 or more a RR of 10.42 (CI=4.38–24.79).

Conclusions

As in other countries, alcohol drinking is a trigger for an injury in all five countries. The use of more than one control period give further strength to these findings from case-crossover analysis.