• Stuart Vb McLay, Ellen MacDonald, Daniel M Fatovich, and Alcohol Harm in Emergency Departments (AHED) Investigators.
• Emergency Medicine, Royal Perth Hospital, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
• Emerg Med Australas. 2017 Oct 1; 29 (5): 531-538.

ObjectiveTo quantify and describe alcohol-related presentations to our ED, as part of the binational Alcohol Harm in Emergency Departments study.MethodsA prospective observational study at Royal Perth Hospital of every patient attending ED for the 168-h period commencing 08.00 hours Monday 1 December 2014. Patient presentations were classified as alcohol-related (alcohol-positive) using predefined criteria. These patients were compared to alcohol-negative patients on a range of demographic and clinical descriptors.ResultsTwo hundred and thirteen (15.2%) of 1403 patients screened were alcohol-positive. Compared with alcohol-negative patients, alcohol-positive patients were more likely to be male (148/213, 69.5% vs 636/1190, 53.4%, P < 0.001) and younger (mean 38 years vs 48 years, P < 0.001). They were more likely to arrive in police custody (OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.3-9.5, P = 0.005), and be admitted to the State Adult Major Trauma Unit (OR 4.2, 95% CI 2.1-8.3, P < 0.001). Forty-two (19.7%) of 213 patients had injuries suspected to be caused by an alcohol-affected third party. The ED length of stay and admission rate were not significantly different between the groups.Conclusions15.2% of patient presentations over the study week were alcohol-related. These patients were more likely to present with injury; one in five having injuries suspected to be caused by a third party affected by alcohol. This is a significant public health problem.© 2017 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

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