The Effects of Ethnicity, Age and Sex Upon Processing through an Emergency Alcohol Health Care Delivery System

Abstract

This study provides a basic demographic profile of an emergency room alcohol patient population, and examines the relationships of age, ethnicity and sex to type of complaint at admission, likelihood of referral for further aid, type of psychiatric diagnosis given, and ultimate disposition of the case. One thousand, one hundred and eleven consecutive alcohol related admissions were included from the emergency room of a large, inner-city county hospital of a city in which a substantial proportion of the population is Spanish and Negro. Alcohol admissions were predominantly Caucasian and male, with a modal age of 35 to 49 years. The most common medical diagnoses were, respectively, acute intoxication and chronic alcoholism, followed by organic brain syndromes and psychoses attributed to alcohol use, seizure disorders and alcohol-related somatic complaints, and suicide attempts and bizarre behaviour under the influence of alcohol. 16.8% of these patients received psychiatric evaluation and only 21.8% were referred for further help with their alcohol related problems. Further breakdowns and relationships of these variables are discussed, and possible reasons for the observations are suggested.

Treatment and Recovery in Alcoholism: Contrast between Results in White Men and Those in Special Populations

“…Analysis of the referrals indicated marked differences: Women were referred for subsequent services twice as often as men. Spanish patients had a significantly higher proportion of leaving without being seen (Westie and McBride, 1979).…”

The Treatment‐Delivery System and Alcohol Abuse in Women: Social Policy Implications

“…When body weight is controlled for, women generally reach higher BALs (blood alcohol levels) on given amounts of alcohol than do men. Also, alcoholic women more frequently report increased alcohol use associated with the premenstruum, and with problems related to feminine physiological-reproductive functioning than do nonalcoholic women (Beckman, 1979;Wilsnack, 1973). 2.…”

“…Gender is a predisposing variable that affects other personal characteristics and system variables. For instance, past research comparing health behavior and beliefs of men and women (e.g., Blane, Overton, & Chafetz, 1963;Carver, 1977;Milmoe, Rosenthal, Blane, Chafetz, & Wolf, 1967;Westie & McBride, 1979;Wolf, Chafetz, Blane, & Hill, 1965), as well as the characteristics of male and female alcoholics, suggests the following hypotheses:…”