Abstract
BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused changes in people’s drinking habits and the emergency management system for various diseases. However, no studies have investigated the pandemic’s impact on emergency transportation for acute alcoholic intoxication. This study examines the effect of the pandemic on emergency transportation due to acute alcoholic intoxication in Kochi Prefecture, Japan, a region with high alcohol consumption.MethodsA retrospective observational study was conducted using data of 180,747 patients from the Kochi-Iryo-Net database, Kochi Prefecture’s emergency medical and wide-area disaster information system. Chi-squared tests and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed. The association between emergency transportation and alcoholic intoxication was examined. The differences between the number of transportations during the voluntary isolation period in Japan (March and April 2020) and the same period for 2016–2019 were measured.ResultsIn 2020, emergency transportations due to acute alcoholic intoxication declined by 0.2%, compared with previous years. Emergency transportation due to acute alcoholic intoxication decreased significantly between March and April 2020, compared with the same period in 2016–2019, even after adjusting for confounding factors (adjusted odds ratio 0.67; 95% confidence interval 0.47–0.96).ConclusionsThis study showed that lifestyle changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic affected the number of emergency transportations; in particular, those due to acute alcoholic intoxication decreased significantly.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused changes in people’s drinking habits and the emergency management system for various diseases
There were significant differences in all age groups; compared with people older than 60 years, 20–29-year-olds had the highest rate of emergency transportation due to alcoholic intoxication (Table 3)
The results of our study showed that the number of emergency transportations due to acute alcoholic intoxication decreased in March and April of 2020, compared with the same period in other years (2016–2019)
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused changes in people’s drinking habits and the emergency management system for various diseases. No studies have investigated the pandemic’s impact on emergency transportation for acute alcoholic intoxication. This study examines the effect of the pandemic on emergency transportation due to acute alcoholic intoxication in Kochi Prefecture, Japan, a region with high alcohol consumption. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread globally and affected many countries [3] and regions [4], including areas in Japan [5]. Changes in the emergency management system (EMS) as a result of society’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been observed in many countries [11, 12]
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