Comparison of socio-demographic characteristics as predictors of alcohol and injury across 10 countries.

KORCHA, R.; CREMONTE, M.

San Francisco

Congreso; Reunión anual de la American Public Health Association; 2012

American Public Health Association

Extensive research has been conducted on the demographic characteristics of emergency department injury patients in the U.S. and Canada but less is known about injury patients in many of the countries in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Comparisons, using World Bank income indicators based on the Gross National Index (GNI), show that patients in the lower middle income (Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Guyana) and upper middle income (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic) countries were no different in the likelihood of reporting drinking prior to the injury when compared with patients from high income (U.S. and Canada) countries. However, patients who were current users of alcohol from the lower middle income countries were 40% more likely to report an alcohol-related injury compared to those from the high income countries. Men showed a similar trend in incurring an alcohol-related injury across country income groups but a different pattern emerged for women. Women from high income countries were nearly twice as likely to have an alcohol-related injury event compared with other income groups; however, no difference was found when only women who were current drinkers were compared. Men were more likely to incur an alcohol-related injury regardless of country level income but other demographic predictors (age, education, employment) of alcohol-related injury differed by income categorization. Findings here suggest that there are important differences in the alcohol-injury association according to a country?s level of economic development, and differentially by gender, thus underscoring the need for a cross-country and gender perspective.