Uso de alcohol y riesgo de lesión por causa externa

CREMONTE, M.; CHERPITEL, C.; BORGES, G.

Mendoza, Argentina

Congreso; XI Reunión de la Asociación Argentina de Ciencias del Comportamiento; 2007

Asociación Argentina de Ciencias del Comportamiento

ABSTRACT Injuries are one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world. In Argentina un-intentional injuries constitute the first cause of death from the age of one through the age of 34 and remains within the first ten places across all the life span. Although alcohol consumption has been strongly associated with injuries in the literature, studies reporting a risk estimation are scarce and practically non-existent in un-developed countries. The objective of this article is to estimate for a South-American city, the risk of intentional and intentional injuries after acute alcohol consumption. Sample was collected through a probabilistic scheme and consisted of 848 injured and non-injured patients arriving to the emergency department of a large hospital. The hospital, located in Mar del Plata, Argentina, receives the vast majority of injuries occurring in the city requiring urgent or emergency medical care. The risk was estimated through logistic regression analysis using the non-injured patients as a comparison group. Having a positive breathalyzer reading was the independent variable and age, gender and usual alcohol consumption were controlled for. Results indicate an OR=6,11 (IC=95% 2,50-14,95) and an even higher risk for intentional injuries OR=8,46 (IC=95% 3,04-23,7).