Emergency department visits for alcohol-related unintentional traumatic injuries, United States, 2001

Alcohol-related emergency department (ED) that presents an opportunity to intervene to prevent future alcohol-related problems among adolescents and adults has been reported. The single greatest contributor to alcohol related mortality in the United States is unintentional injury, accounting for approximately 26,000 deaths per year and placing a substantial burden on ED. All nonfatal injuries were classified according to the precipitating cause of injury such as fall, struck by or against, motor vehicle crash, principal diagnosis, primary body part injured, disposition upon discharge from the ED location of injury, and intent. Alcohol-related ED visits that did not involve a visible traumatic injury were excluded from the analysis such as acute intoxication, treatment of symptoms caused by chronic alcohol abuse. Alcohol involvement varied according to patient characteristics such as sex or diagnosis, estimates of relation between alcohol involvement and these characteristics may be biased.