Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117568

Yu Ye, MA, Cheryl J. Cherpitel, DrPH, and Jason Bond, PhD. Alcohol Research Group, 2000 Hearst Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709, 510 642-5208, yye@arg.org

ER studies have found substantial proportions of both injured and non-injured patients report frequent ER use compared with the general population. While alcohol-related i admission and chronic alcohol abuse has been found to be predictive of future ER admissions among injury patients, few studies examined the differential effect of the organization of ER services and socio-cultural characteristics. Data reported are from 10,287 injury patients included in 38 ERs across 24 studies in 15 countries from the combined Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project (ERCAAP) and the WHO Collaborative Study of Alcohol and Injuries. Using zero-inflated poisson model in a multi-level setting, we estimated both likelihood of pervious ER use within the last 12 months and the counts of visit. At the individual level, alcohol-related injury admission was not found to be predictive the likelihood of prior ER use, but was associated with more frequent visits for patients who were likely to use ER before. Drinking 5 or more at least monthly were more likely to report both prior ER use and more frequent visit. At the ER level, although ER utilization varied with organizational and socio-cultural variables, only per capita alcohol consumption was marginally associated with alcohol use and ER utilization relationship. This study confirms the potential effectiveness of screening acute and chronic alcohol use patients among ER injury patients in the reduction of ER visits.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Recognize the association of alcohol use (abuse) and ER utilization
• Apply Zero-inflated poisson (ZIP) regression to model counts data
• recognize the effectiveness of screening alcohol use (abuse) patients to reduce their risk of admission for subsequent trauma

Keywords: Alcohol Use, Emergency Department/Room

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.