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Blood alcohol and injury in Bhutan: targeted surveillance in a national referral hospital emergency department

journal contribution
posted on 2017-02-01, 00:00 authored by G Dorji, S Pradhan, T Tenzin, Peter MillerPeter Miller, J Connor, K Kypri
Bhutan is a low-middle-income country with poor roads, rapidly increasing motor vehicle use and heavy alcohol consumption. We estimated the proportion of emergency department patients presenting with injury who had positive blood alcohol. We sought to breathalyse and interview all adult patients (≥18 years) presenting with injury at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in the capital city Thimphu, from April to October 2015. Breath tests and interviews were conducted with 339 (91%) of 374 eligible adult patients. A third (34%) were alcohol-positive and 22% had blood alcohol concentrations >0.08 g/dL. The highest alcohol-positive fractions were for assault (71%), falls (31%) and traffic crashes (30%). Over a third (36%) of patients had a delay of >2 h between injury and breath test. The results underestimate blood alcohol concentrations at the time of injury so the true prevalence of pre-injury alcohol impairment is greater than our estimates suggest. Countermeasures are urgently needed, particularly roadside random breath testing and alcohol controls.

History

Journal

Injury prevention

Volume

23

Issue

1

Pagination

64 - 66

Publisher

BMJ Publishing Group

Location

London, Eng.

eISSN

1475-5785

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2016, The Authors

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