Relative risk of injury due to alcohol consumption in car and motorcycle drivers.

BACKGROUND

There is strong evidence that a substantial number of fatal as well as nonfatal injuries in road traffic accidents result from alcohol consumption and abuse.

AIMS

To examine the relationship between blood alcohol concentration and characteristics of injury in trauma patients admitted to a major teaching hospital.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional investigation of trauma characteristics among 38 435 car and motorcycle drivers referred to the South of Iran Trauma Center between October and March 2018. A log-binomial regression model was used to evaluate the relative risk of each covariate on the Injury Severity Score.

RESULTS

There were 253 patients (7.78%) with alcohol consumption. Also, blood alcohol level was positive in 8.66% and 6.93% of car and motorcycle drivers, respectively. The ISS in alcohol consumers and nonconsumers was 6.34 (standard deviation; 8.73) and 4.12 (7.78), respectively, which was significantly higher in the alcohol consumers (t test = 12.96, P < 0.001). Therefore, alcohol consumption was a significant factor in increasing the relative risk of injury, which was 2.83 units more than among drivers who had not consumed alcohol.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings show that the police and law enforcement agencies have a responsibility to enforce stricter rules to reduce drink driving and the burden of trauma on the healthcare system.