Injury-related medical care utilization in a problem drinking population

J.O. Blose and H.D. Holder

American Journal of Public Health, 1991, vol. 81, issue 12, 1571-1575

Abstract: Background. Population-based data on the overall risk of injury among problem drinkers are extremely limited. Methods. We conducted an eight-year study of injury-related medical care utilization for a group of problem drinkers (n = 3,729) enrolled in the health insurance plan of a large manufacturing firm with plants in a number of midwestern states. A comparison non-problem drinking cohort matched on age, gender, and number of years of enrollment with the same company plan was also utilized. Results. Problem drinkers utilized injury-related medical care at a rate 1.6 times that of the comparison group and experienced injury-related medical care costs which were three times as high. Increased risk were found for both men and women and for all ages studied. Conclusions. This study is one of the few to examine the overall incidence of fatal and non-fatal injuries among a large population of problem drinkers and provides evidence that higher medical care costs are associated with chronic alcohol use.

Date: 1991
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:1991:81:12:1571-1575_0

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().