Emergency Department Visits Involving Underage Alcohol Misuse: 2010 to 2013
Sarah Naeger, Sarah Naeger
Excerpt
Background: Alcohol consumption by people younger than age 21 persists despite laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that prohibit drinking by this age group. National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data have shown improvements in the prevalence of underage drinking behaviors over time. NSDUH data also suggest that historically observed gender gaps in underage drinking behaviors may be declining. Method: Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Emergency Department Sample data from 2010 to 2013 were used to assess prevalence of underage alcohol misuse-related emergency department (ED) visits. Poisson regression models with a continuous time variable, a gender variable, and a time by gender interaction were used to examine changes in the trends in the rates of alcohol-only and drug and alcohol combination ED visits by time and gender. Separate Poisson regression models were run in samples that were stratified by gender. Results: This analysis found that a majority of alcohol misuse-related ED visits among patients aged 12 to 20 involved only alcohol and that the observed trends between 2010 and 2013 showed some limited improvement in the occurrence of these visits for specific age groups. Significant declines in the rate of alcohol-only ED visits were observed among underage patients aged 15 to 17 and aged 12 to 14. Young adults aged 18 to 20, who have the highest rate of any type of alcohol misuse-related ED visits, showed no improvements in the frequency of alcohol-only ED visits or drug and alcohol combination visits. Conclusion: The steady rates of adolescents and young adults visiting the ED for episodes related to alcohol combined with other drugs may indicate that such behavior requires additional public health interventions. New strategies may be needed to raise awareness because these combinations can be especially dangerous among young people who are unfamiliar with drug interaction effects. Public health resources could be used to help prevent or reduce the availability of alcohol to underage drinkers and encourage adolescents and young adults to make healthy decisions.
References
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Source: PubMed