Age of drinking onset and unintentional injury involvement after drinking.

Author(s)
Hingson, R.W. Heeren, T. Jamanka, A. & Howland, J.
Year
Abstract

In 1997, unintentional injury was the leading cause of death for persons aged 1 to 34 years. Approximately one third of deaths due to unintentional injury in the United States are estimated to be alcohol related. Onset of drinking at an early age has been found to be associated with alcohol dependence, but whether early-onset drinking increases risk for unintentional injury while drinking is unknown. The objective of this study of the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiology Survey, a cross-sectional survey conducted in 1992 of a representative sample of the US population, was to explore whether persons who started drinking at an early age are more likely to have experienced unintentional injuries while under the influence of alcohol. Participants were a total of 42,862 randomly selected adults (response rate, 90%; mean age, 44 years). Main outcome measures was unintentional injury involvement while under the influence of alcohol by age of drinking onset (categorised as <14 years, each age from 14-20 years, or 21 years). Relative to respondents who began drinking at age 21 years or older, those who started before age 14 years as well as those who started at each intervening age up to 21 years were significantly more likely to have been injured while under the influence of alcohol, even after controlling for history of alcohol dependence, heavy drinking frequency during the period that they drank most, family history of alcoholism, and other characteristics associated with earlier onset of drinking. After adjusting for these variables, odds ratios for having been injured while under the influence of alcohol were as follows: for younger than 14 years, 2.98 (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.29-3.89); age 14 years, 2.96 (95% CI, 2.26-3.88); age 15 years, 3.14 (95% CI, 2.48-3.97); age 16 years, 2.38 (95% CI, 1.90-2.98); age 17 years, 2.12 (95% CI, 1.66-2.71); age 18 years, 1.33 (95% CI, 1.08-1.64); age 19 years, 1.42 (95% CI, 1.07-1.89); and age 20 years, 1.39 (95% CI, 1.01-1.91). It is concluded that drinking onset at ages younger than 21 years is associated with having experienced alcohol-related injuries. (A)

Request publication

4 + 14 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.

Publication

Library number
20010379 ST [electronic version only]
Source

The Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA, Vol. 284 (2000), No. 12 (September 27), p. 1527-1533, 27 ref.

Our collection

This publication is one of our other publications, and part of our extensive collection of road safety literature, that also includes the SWOV publications.