A new study examined differentials and trends in emergency department visits, following alcohol intoxication and co-occurring conditions among students presenting to a major U.S. university health system. The study used data from a cohort of students (N = 7035) from a U.S. public university who visited the university hospital ED from 2009 to 2015. The ED electronic medical records (EMR) were investigated for 9616 student visits and their records were linked to the university’s student admission datasets. Student ED visits due to alcohol intoxication and co-occurring health consequences were identified based on ICD-9 diagnostic codes. Co-occurring conditions examined included injury and trauma, mental health issues, other substance use, and sexual assault. The authors used descriptive statistics to calculate the rate of alcohol intoxication in each academic year, stratified by demographic characteristics, academic program and organization affiliation. Linear regression was used to evaluate the trends in the rate in each category over the study period. Results showed that 10.4% of ED visits were due to alcohol intoxication, of which 83.5% had alcohol intoxication as the principal diagnosis. The rate of alcohol intoxication was significantly higher in males (11.1%) than in females (9.7%), and higher in white students (10.7%) than in African-American students (7.8%), (p < 0.05). US non-resident students (5.3%) had the lowest rate compared to other racial groups (p < 0.05). The rate was also higher in undergraduate (11.9%) than in graduate students (3.8%) and in students affiliated with fraternities/sororities (13.6%) than in those who were not (9.6%), (p < 0.05). The rate decreased with age, it was found to be 16% in students aged less than 20 years, 8.3% in ages 20 to 25, and 3.5% in ages greater than 25 (p < 0.01). The rate varied greatly by academic program, ranging from 1% among commerce graduate students to 15% among nursing undergraduate students. In addition, the rate of alcohol intoxication increased significantly from 7.9% in 2009/10 to 12.3% in 2014/15 (p < 0.01). The increase was greater among female students (from 7.6% to 12.1%, p = 0.01), students below 20 years of age (from 10.8% to 17.6%, p < 0.001), Asian students (from 5.7% to 10.8%, p = 0.04), and members of a university athletic team (from 4.8% to 13%, p < 0.001). Of all the alcohol intoxication visits, 66% had co-occurring diagnoses. Injuries (24%) were the most common condition, followed by depression (3.2%), suicidal behavior (2.9%), drug use (2.7%), and anxiety (2.4%).
Take away: Students having an ED visit involving alcohol intoxication were more likely to be males, under 20 years of age, white, affiliated with fraternities/sororities, and undergraduate students. There was a significant increase in both the number and rate of recorded alcohol intoxication from 2009 to 2015.