Survey of alcohol‐related presentations to Australasian emergency departments. Issue 10 (17th November 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Egerton‐Warburton, Diana; Gosbell, Andrew; Wadsworth, Angela; Fatovich, Daniel M; Richardson, Drew B
• Is Part Of: Medical journal of Australia. Volume 201:Issue 10(2014)
• Page Start: 584
• Page End: 587
• Publication Date: 2014-11-17
• Subjects: Substance‐related disorders -- Emergency medicine; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine; Médecine -- Périodiques; Medicine; Periodical; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 610
• DOI: 10.5694/mja14.00344
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0025-729X

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: To determine the proportion of alcohol‐related presentations to emergency departments (EDs) in Australia and New Zealand, at a single time point on a weekend night shift. Design, setting and participants: A point prevalence survey of ED patients either waiting to be seen or currently being seen conducted at 02:00 local time on 14 December 2013 in 106 EDs in Australia and New Zealand. Main outcome measures: The number of ED presentations that were alcohol‐related, defined using World Health Organization ICD‐10 codes. Results: At the 106 hospitals (92 Australia, 14 New Zealand) that provided data, 395 (14.3%; 95% CI, 13.0%–15.6%) of 2766 patients in EDs at the study time were presenting for alcohol‐related reasons; 13.8% (95% CI, 12.5%–15.2%) in Australia and 17.9% (95% CI, 13.9%–22.8%) in New Zealand. The distribution was skewed left, with proportions ranging from 0 to 50% and a median of 12.5%. Nine Australian hospitals and one New Zealand hospital reported that more than a third of their ED patients had alcohol‐related presentations; the Northern Territory (38.1%) and Western Australia (21.1%) reported the highest proportions of alcohol‐related presentations. Conclusions: One in seven ED presentations in Australian and New Zealand at this 02:00 snapshot were alcohol‐related, with some EDs seeing more than one in three alcohol‐related presentations. This confirms that alcohol‐related presentations to EDs are currently underreported and makes a strong case for public health initiatives.