Male drinking and violence-related injury in the emergency room.

AIMS

To present epidemiological measures of associations between violence-related injuries (assaults and fights), alcohol consumption prior to the event, and drinking patterns among males attending hospital emergency rooms (ERs) in Mexico City.

DESIGN

All patients were interviewed and breath tested for alcohol consumption. The data were analyzed using a case-control design.

SETTING

Eight ERs in Mexico City that were representative of the types of emergency care systems available in that city (from public, private and social security systems hospitals).

PARTICIPANTS

Cases were males patients (n = 445) admitted to the ER because of a fight or an assault. The control group was comprised of patients (n = 320) admitted to the ER because of accidents that are less frequently reported a alcohol-related (i.e. work-place accidents, animal bites or recreational accidents excluding near drowning).

MEASUREMENTS

A breath sample to estimate BAG, as well as an interviewer-administered questionnaire were used.

FINDINGS

Alcohol consumption prior to injury was found to be a more important risk factor than usual drinking for injuries resulting from violence, while quantity of usual alcohol consumption was more predictive of violence-related injuries than frequency of drinking.

CONCLUSIONS

These data suggest the importance of using more appropriate control groups when estimating associations of alcohol and violence-related injuries so that associations will not be underestimated. More research is needed to establish unbiased estimates of alcohol-related violence.