Drinking patterns and problems and drinking in the injury event: an analysis of emergency room patients by ethnicity

Abstract

While a substantial literature exists on the association of alcohol consumption and injury, less is known about the context in which drinking occurs within specific ethnic groups in the United States. This paper analyzes drinking patterns, alcohol-related problems and drinking-in-the-event variables among a probability sample of 359 black, 528 Hispanic and 458 white patients who were breathalyzed and interviewed after admission to the emergency room. Injured patients among both Hispanics and whites were more likely to be positive on the breathalyzer and to report heavy drinking and more frequent drunkenness during the preceding year than their non-injured counterparts. Blacks were less likely than either Hispanics or whites to report a larger number of drinks prior to injury, feeling drunk at the time, or a causal association of alcohol and the injury event. These data suggest a differential role of alcohol in injury occurrence within ethnic groups, with alcohol possibly playing less of a role in the injury event for blacks than for Hispanics or whites.

Linking drinking to injury – causal attribution of injury to alcohol intake among patients in a Swedish emergency room

“…People in 'dry' cultures (who tend to drink infrequently but in rather large volumes) are more likely than people in 'wet' cultures (who typically drink more often but in lower volumes) to positively associate a causal link between drinking and an injury event . Associations between drinking and injuries have also been found to vary across ethnic groups and regions in the US (Cherpitel 1997(Cherpitel , 1998 and across cultures and countries (Cherpitel et al 1993, Cherpitel 1999. Hence, causal attribution of injury to drinking appears to be related both to individual-level alcohol use and contextual factors that impact on the individual's likelihood of linking drinking to injury.…”

Correlates of Injury Among ED Visits: Effects of Alcohol, Risk Perception, Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking Behaviors

“…However, our data did not reveal any statistically significant differences for the role of ethnicity among injured and noninjured. This is especially interesting since findings from national data suggest that Hispanics are more likely to be heavy drinkers than African Americans (13). Therefore, one expects significantly higher presentation of the Hispanic among injured due to drinking behavior.…”

Results of Two Emergency Room Studies

“…A standard questionnaire, used in the Santa Clara ER study [6] and translated into Polish, was adopted for the purpose of this study. This instrument posed questions regarding the condition which brought the patient for emergency services, the quantity and frequency of drinking on a usual occasion, heavy drinking and intoxication, and health and social consequences of drinking including dependence and abuse, all during last 12 months.…”

“…In addition to a strong relationship between alcohol and casualties, existing evidence from comparative studies suggests that this relationship may be substantially affected by cultural factors. In an earlier study, Cherpitel [6] found that Mexican-Americans were less likely to be victims of alcohol-related injury than their counterparts in Mexico but more likely compared to non-Hispanic whites in a California ER sample.…”