Alcohol in home and leisure injuries

Abstract

The part that alcohol plays in non-motor vehicle unintentional injuries is not well known. Injuries at home and during leisure form a very heterogeneous group. Alcohol involvement varies considerably from one subgroup to another: for example, all cases of alcohol poisoning involve alcohol by definition, whereas alcohol involvement is very infrequent in sports injuries. One-third of falls, half of drownings and fire deaths and two-thirds of hypothermia deaths involve alcohol. Young and middle-aged males form a risk group of alcohol-related trauma. Alcohol involvement varies also from country to country: deaths from alcohol poisoning are several times as common in Finland as in other Western countries. In contrast to experience in Western countries, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, wealthier injured Africans were found to have alcohol involvement more often than poor Africans. Alcohols seems to increase the risk of falling, bicycle and motor vehicle injuries largely to the same extent. The relative importance of the two main components of alcohol-related risk--risk-taking and impaired psychomotor functions--requires further exploration in each main external cause category of home and leisure injuries.