Emergency department visits for alcohol-related incidents in the United States

Abstract

Alcoholism is the fourth leading cause of preventable death in the United States and was found to be the global leading risk factor for death in persons 15-49 years old. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) conducted in 2021, 29.5 million people aged 12 years and older in the United States (US) were diagnosed with Alcohol Use Disorder thus causing alarm in many communities. This study was aimed to determine if Emergency Department (ED) visits for alcohol-related issues in the US are affected by the type of insurance coverage and regional location while assessing its outcomes on the respective patient demographics and populations. A total of 3236 patients with alcohol-related incidents (ICD-10 Code: F10.2) met the study criteria and were extracted from the 2019 United States National Hospital Ambulatory Care Survey (NHAMCS) tabulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze the data using descriptive analysis and chi-squared tests with an alpha significance of 0.05. The study found that patients visiting the ED in the US for alcohol-related issues were affected by patient demographics, type of insurance, and regional location. Moreover, the clinical and mortality outcomes also vary significantly across patient demographics.