Risky drinking in young adults puts them at higher risk for violence, sexually transmitted diseases, partner risk characteristics, mortality, and injury. Previous studies have looked at relationships between neighborhood health and adolescent health-risk behaviors. The current study looks at traumatic unintentional injury hospitalizations with positive blood alcohol content (BAC) in a location. The next aim was to look at trends and correlate the hospitalizations to cause of injury outcome, BAC, and age group.
The study was retrospective in nature and included hospitalized patients from January 2006 to December 2015. They included children (10-14 years), adolescents (15-19 years), and young adults (20-24 years). Researchers used data to determine cause of injury, positive BAC levels, demographics, neighborhood status, and socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status was measured through patient’s insurance and BAC was considered positive if there were any trace of alcohol meaning a test greater than 0.0. The final study included 6,233 young people in Chicago, Illinois and around one-third of patients had a positive BAC. Hospitalizations did decrease for all populations throughout the time data was pulled from.
Results showed a high proportion of hospitalizations with a positive BAC came from a 33 block group in three Chicago Community Areas. Motor vehicle traffic was the leading cause of hospitalizations for all patients. The second leading cause was falls. They also found that increased risk factors were male, black or a minority race, having no private insurance, and living in a disadvantaged neighborhood. This information is important when identifying substance use outcomes and high-risk areas throughout different geographical locations. It also gives insight into different demographics that may put young adults at a higher risk for risky drinking and negative consequences.
Take Away: Risky drinking in young adults puts them at higher risk for many negative outcomes. The current study looks at traumatic unintentional injury hospitalizations with positive blood alcohol content (BAC) in a location. The study was retrospective in nature and included hospitalized patients from January 2006 to December 2015. Researchers used data to determine cause of injury, positive BAC levels, demographics, neighborhood status, and socioeconomic status. Hospitalizations decreased for all populations and a high proportion of hospitalizations with a positive BAC came from a 33 block area. Motor vehicle traffic was the leading cause of hospitalizations and increased risk factors were being male, black or a minority race, having no private insurance, and living in a disadvantaged neighborhood. This information is important when identifying substance use outcomes and high-risk areas throughout different geographical locations