Vitale Salvatore G, van de Mheen Dike, Garretsen Henk F L, van de Wiel Albert
Addiction Research Institute (IVO), Heemraadssingel 194, 3021 DM Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Alcohol Alcohol. 2005 Nov-Dec;40(6):524-30. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agh193. Epub 2005 Aug 8.
This study compared different methods of assessing self-reported alcohol use among emergency room patients in order to explain the variations in reported prevalence rates.
Alcohol use prior to patient's injury or illness was assessed in one hospital by a self-report questionnaire in three different ways: (i) administered by emergency room staff, (ii) administered by research staff, or (iii) sent to the patient's home by post.
Results show variations in self-reported alcohol use 6 h prior to the injury or illness ranging from 4.6 to 9.1%; these variations may be explained by sample selection bias and characteristics of the included study populations. When self-report is combined with staff judgement the corresponding prevalence rates are 6.8% for research staff and 16.2% for emergency room staff. This shows that the latter judge the patient's alcohol use more efficiently than the research staff. Using research staff 24 h a day resulted in almost no sample bias. Data collection via emergency room staff leads to the highest alcohol use prevalence rates and to the highest sample bias; this was influenced by the emergency room characteristics. A retrospective mail survey results in an older sample with age-related (lower) alcohol use and emergency room characteristics related to this age group.
Future studies using patient self-report among emergency room samples should consider carefully the influence of sample selection bias. The combination of the research staff handing out the questionnaire and the emergency room staff giving their judgement on the patient's alcohol use seems to be a useful method.
本研究比较了评估急诊患者自我报告饮酒情况的不同方法，以解释报告患病率的差异。
在一家医院，通过自我报告问卷以三种不同方式评估患者受伤或患病前的饮酒情况：（i）由急诊室工作人员进行，（ii）由研究人员进行，或（iii）邮寄至患者家中。
结果显示，受伤或患病前6小时自我报告的饮酒情况差异为4.6%至9.1%；这些差异可能由样本选择偏差和纳入研究人群的特征来解释。当自我报告与工作人员判断相结合时，研究人员对应的患病率为6.8%，急诊室工作人员为16.2%。这表明，后者对患者饮酒情况的判断比研究人员更有效。一天24小时使用研究人员几乎不会产生样本偏差。通过急诊室工作人员收集数据导致饮酒患病率最高且样本偏差最大；这受到急诊室特征的影响。回顾性邮件调查得到的样本年龄较大，饮酒情况与年龄相关（较低），且具有与该年龄组相关的急诊室特征。
未来在急诊样本中使用患者自我报告的研究应仔细考虑样本选择偏差的影响。由研究人员发放问卷并结合急诊室工作人员对患者饮酒情况进行判断似乎是一种有用的方法。
