Alcohol and drug use among a large cohort of injured vehicular occupants and pedestrians treated in a trauma center.

Author(s)
Soderstrom, C.A. Kerns, T.J. Kufera, J.A. & Dischinger, P.C.
Year
Abstract

Most studies of substance abuse among injured crash victims have focused on vehicular occupants. This study compared demographic factors and toxicology test results (alcohol, cocaine, opiates, cannabis) in a large cohort of injured occupants and pedestrians admitted to a trauma center. Data were analyzed from a large clinical toxicology database from 1996 through 2000. There were 9,947 occupants and 1,547 pedestrians available for study. Alcohol and other drug testing rates were 98% and 47%, respectively, with no testing biases. Sixty-one percent of occupants and 73% of pedestrians were men (p<.01). Thirty-four percent of occupants were about 40 years compared with 39% of pedestrians (p<0.01). Compared with occupants, significantly higher percentages of pedestrians tested positive for alcohol (27% vs 20%, p<.01), cocaine (20% vs 9%, p<.01) and opiates (24% vs 18%, p<.01) There was no statistical difference in the percentage of pedestrians (13%) and occupants (15%) testing positive for cannabis. (Author/publisher) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD Abstract No. E201067.

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Publication

Library number
C 27971 (In: C 27945) /83 / ITRD E201147 (also at CD-ROM C 27890/C27945/C28028)
Source

In: Alcohol, drugs and traffic safety : proceedings of the 16th ICADTS International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety T'2002, Montreal, Canada, August 4-9, 2002, Volume 2, p. 493-498, 14 ref.

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