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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Aemi Tiemo, BS¹, Janette Baird, PhD², Ted D. Nirenberg, PhD², Michael J. Mello, MD, MPH², Robert Woolard, MD³, and Richard Longabaugh, EdD⁴. (1) Injury Prevention Center, Rhode Island Hopsital, 110 Lockwood Street, Suite 334, Providence, RI 02903, 401-444-2685, atiemo@lifespan.org, (2) Injury Prevention Center, Rhode Island Hospital, 110 Lockwood Street, Room 334, Providence, RI 02903, (3) Emergency Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital, 593 Eddy Street, Providence, RI 02874, (4) Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, Box G-BH, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912

Objective: ED patients often report harmful alcohol and marijuana use. Several ED intervention programs are underway to reduce these and other harmful behaviors. We explore the association between stress and the use of alcohol and marijuana in this population.

Method: An anonymous self administered 12- item health behavior survey, including questions on frequency of stress, use of marijuana and alcohol, were given to non-critically injured or ill ED patients from all shifts of the day and days of the week.

Results: From the analysis conducted (n= 2718 patients) patients who report experiencing stress at least once monthly, were more likely to report smoking than non-stressed patients (p = .004), and were also more likely to engage in harmful levels of alcohol use (i.e. 7+ drinks a week for females; 14+ drinks for males; NIAAA guidelines) than those who reported no stress (p < .001). Patients using marijuana were also more likely to report being stressed at least once a month compared to non-users (p =0.004). Overall females were more likely to be stressed than males (p<0.001) and although more males reported harmful levels of alcohol use (p = 0.003), females reporting more risky alcohol use reported the greatest frequency of stress (p< .001).

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that ED patients certainly experience stress and there is an associate between stress, alcohol and marijuana use. ED interventions undertaken to reduce alcohol and marijuana use may also need to target healthy ways to manage stress.

Learning Objectives: