Most common principal diagnoses assigned to Australian emergency department presentations involving alcohol use: a multi‐centre study

Abstract

A lcohol is the most commonly used psychoactive substance consumed in Australia and almost 80% of people aged 14 years and over have reported alcohol consumption in the past 12 months. 1 Harmful use of alcohol is one of the leading causes of disease burden among people in Australia, particularly adolescents, 1 and is a major contributory factor to injury-related deaths (i.e. suicide, transport accidents and falls). 1 Emergency departments (EDs) are one of the key points of contact between people experiencing alcohol-related harms and the health sector. [2][3][4][5] To determine public health issues associated with alcohol consumption, the World Health Organization (WHO) has encouraged the routine collection of ED data for use in preventing alcohol-related injuries or deaths. 6 The best-known model for such data collection comes from Cardiff, Wales,

Factors associated with higher alcohol concentrations in emergency department presentations: PACE study

“…Consistent with the literature [11,12,34], this study found that males and people of younger age had the highest blood ethanol concentrations, with males having 83% higher concentrations than females, and younger age groups having more than three times higher concentrations than those aged 65+ years. Blood ethanol concentrations at the time of presentation in patients brought in by ambulance or involuntarily for emergency examination were between two-and eight-fold higher than in those who self-attended.…”

“…In 2017, the leading three alcohol-attributable health conditions were neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., alcohol dependence/ abuse, alcoholic polyneuropathy), unintentional injuries (e.g., road traffic crashes, falls, poisoning) and digestive diseases (e.g., alcoholic gastritis, alcoholic liver cirrhosis), with males being hospitalised more than females for all three causes [11]. In an Australian multi-centre study, Miller et al [12] analysed the 10 most common principal diagnosis codes (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, Australian Modification, ICD-10-AM) from patients who had self-reported alcohol consumption in the previous 12 h. The leading three principal diagnoses blocks were mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use, injuries to the head, and symptoms and signs involving the circulatory and respiratory systems. The sample from this study was skewed to be predominantly male across all age groups but more pronounced in the 35-44 and 55-64-year-old age groups.…”

Assessing the utility of night‐time presentations as a proxy for alcohol‐related harm among young emergency department trauma patients

“…Alcohol‐related harm (ARH) is a significant cause of ED visits among young people in Australia, 1 , 2 , 3 with risky drinking behaviour leading to acute alcohol‐related injuries, especially in younger individuals. 4 , 5 It is also common for ARH to coexist with mental illness and illicit drug use, further highlighting its significant impact on health.…”