The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on April 6, 2006
The European Journal of Public Health 2006 16(3):266-270; doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckl039
Injuries |
Gender differences in role of alcohol in fatal injury events
Harmeet Sjögren1, Peter Valverius2,3 and Anders Eriksson4
1 Section of Family Medicine, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, SE-901 85 Umeå, Sweden
2 Division of Psychiatry, Department of Clinical Sciences, Umeå University Hospital, SE-901 85 Umeå, Sweden
3 Disaster Medical Center, Division of Surgery, Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Umeå University Hospital, SE-901 85 Umeå, Sweden
4 Section of Forensic Medicine, Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Umeå University, PO Box 7616, SE-907 12 Umeå, Sweden
Correspondence: Prof Anders Eriksson, Section of Forensic Medicine, Umeå University, PO Box 7616, SE-907 12 Umeå, Sweden, tel: +46 90 100706, fax: +46 90 100729, e-mail: anders.eriksson{at}rmv.se
Background: The aim was to investigate the differences in alcohol involvement in fatal injury events between females and males. Methods: Information was obtained from the Forensic Medicine Database and the Forensic Toxicology Database of the National Board of Forensic Medicine, and from the inpatient register of the National Board of Health and Welfare. Alcohol was regarded to be involved in the injury event: if there was any indication that the deceased was a ‘known alcoholic’; if the underlying or contributing causes of death were alcohol-related; if the deceased had alcohol-related inpatient diagnosis during a 3-year period prior to death; or if the deceased tested positive for blood alcohol at autopsy. All injured cases who underwent medico-legal autopsies (1992–1996) in Sweden were analysed (4471 females and 11 156 males). Results: Compared to males, females died more often (P < 0.05) in intentional injury events (48.0% females, 44.2% males), were less often (P < 0.001) blood alcohol-positive (29% females, 43% males), had lower (P < 0.05) blood alcohol concentrations (0.17% in females, 0.18% in males), and were less likely (P < 0.001) to have an alcohol-related history (18.4% females, 24.4% males). For females, intentional deaths (31.4%) were significantly (P < 0.001) more often alcohol-related than unintentional deaths (22.9%). A significantly (P < 0.001) higher proportion of deaths in males (48.4%) were alcohol-related compared to females (32.9%). Conclusions: Almost every third injury event in females and in almost every other event in males is alcohol-related, showing that alcohol plays an important part in fatal injuries in females even though it is mostly a male problem.
Keywords: alcohol, deaths, gender, injuries