Alcohol and injury in the general population: A risk function analysis from the National Alcohol Survey

The majority of data on risk of injury from alcohol come from emergency room (ER) studies, but we do not know how representative these data are of the general population. Findings are reported from a risk function analysis of data from the 2005 National Alcohol Survey on average daily volume of consumption and frequency of consuming 5 or more drinks during a single day (5+ days) during the last year with reporting an injury, separately for those reporting: 1) any injury during the preceding year; 2) an injury which was treated; and, 3) an injury treated in the ER. The risk of reporting an ER-treated injury increased at an average of 1 drink per day, leveling off at an average of 4 drinks per day, while risk for the other two groups leveled off at an average of 8 drinks per day. Risk of reporting an ER-treated injury increased with reporting 5+ drinking days to 78 such days, while risk for the other two groups peaked at 24 such days during the last year. These data suggest that the association of volume and high maximum days is different for injuries treated in the ER compared to those treated elsewhere or those that go untreated, and data on the association of alcohol and injury based on ER studies is not representative of all injuries. This must be taken into consideration in making estimates of the risk of injury related to alcohol or alcohol attributable fractions based solely on data from ERs.