Alcohol-related attendances in French emergency departments in 2017

Abstract

Abstract Background France is one of the leading countries in terms of daily alcohol consumption per inhabitant. Alcohol is a major concern for emergency department (ED) since it accounts for a large part of their resources and increases behavior problems resulting in violence against staff. Individual information of French ED attendances registered in OSCOUR network are daily collected by Santé publique France, the French Public Health Agency. This study aims at describing alcohol-related ED attendances (ARA) in 2017 in France. Methods The OSCOUR network included 677 ED in 2017 recording 92% of national attendances. ARA were identified through the main and associated medical diagnoses coded by physicians using ICD10. The study considered acute alcohol intoxication, dependence syndrome/withdrawal state, other mental disorders and intoxications due to alcohol, chronic complications and intentional self-poisoning by alcohol. The number of ARA was analyzed by age group, gender and region. Results 1.4% of total attendances were associated to alcohol consumption (202,184 attendances) in 2017. 68% of ARA were due to acute alcohol intoxication and 14% for dependence syndrome/withdrawal state. The highest proportions of ARA were observed for people aged 40-59 yo and 18-24 yo, particularly for women. Regions of North and West metropolitan France and La Réunion Island had the highest proportion of ARA among the total number of attendances. Conclusions The part of ARA in France is consistent with figures provided in international studies using similar data. This proportion is similar with proportion of major public health issues like influenza, that represented 1% of the total ED attendances from November 2016 to February 2017 and reached 1.8% in January (month of the epidemic peak). Consequences of alcohol use represent a heavy burden for ED and the health system in France. This is all the more true as ARA are underestimated due to the low coding rate of associated medical diagnosis in ED. Key messages 1.4% of total French ED attendances were associated to alcohol consumption in 2017. This proportion is close to the proportion of influenza attendances in ED.