Study on alcohol and injury in Korea

Aims: Aims of this study are to calculate the alcohol-attributable fractions of injuries and to estimate the related indicators.

Design and samples: Injury samples were taken from the three metropolitan city hospital emergency rooms in Korea. The samples were collected from the October 1st to December 20th, 2008. In conducting the data analysis, 943 cases that completely interviewed were used. The cases were 18 years old and above. We followed the research survey method according to the WHO collaborative study on alcohol and injuries protocols.

Results: 17.6 percent of injury patients drank alcohol within 6 hours before they got injuries. 66.5 percent of the alcohol-related patients are involved in binge drinking. 25.0 percent of the patients were attacked by a drunken person. The doctor diagnosed the patient's injury according to their categories. 45.7 % is from the third category which is the cut, bite, penetrating injury, and open wound. 29.3% is from the bruise, scrape and superficial wound. 6.1% is intentional self-inflected, 16.4% is intentional by someone else. Most alcohol related cases happened from 7pm to 4am.

The alcohol attributable Fraction results are the following; cut, penetrating injury, open wound is 23.2 %, bruise, scrape, superficial wound is 19.1%, concussion, closed head injury is 16.5%, burn is 13.3%, strain, sprain, dislocation is 12.6%. Totally, the alcohol attributable fraction of injuries is 17.7%. Intentional inflicted is 58.8%, intentional of someone else is 49.1%, unintentional injuries is 15.0%. So the total alcohol attributable fraction of the injuries by others is 25.3%.