Abstract
BackgroundPatients in emergency departments show a high prevalence of substance use. Quality of life is associated with substance use as well as socioeconomic status. Little is known about quality of life in substance-abusing young patients with minor trauma.MethodsAn investigation in an Emergency Department in an inner city university hospital was conducted during 8 months. Overall, 1,596 patients completed the SF-36 and an established SES-questionnaire and were screened for substance use (harmful alcohol consumption (≥ 8 points in men and ≥ 5 points in women on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), smoking and illicit drug use). Results were compared with a representative German population sample (German Federal Health Survey 1998).ResultsMedian age of participants was 32 years and 61.8% were male. Mean physical component summary score (PCS) of the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) was 53.4 ± 8.3 points and significantly higher than the age and gender-stratified German Federal Health Survey-data. Mean mental component summary score (MCS) was 47.9 ± 10.0 points and significantly lower than the age and gender-stratified German Federal Health Survey-data. In Emergency Department patients, prevalence of substance use was high and harmful alcohol consumption and illicit drug use were strongly associated with impaired mental health. Education and occupational status were strongly positively associated with physical health.ConclusionWe conclude that there is a high prevalence of substance use in young patients with minor trauma and mental quality of life is impaired. Screening and brief intervention strategies to reduce substance-use associated disorders should consider these findings.
Highlights
Patients in emergency departments show a high prevalence of substance use
Between December 2001 and July 2002, 1,779 consecutive emergency department (ED) patients were included in the study
Injury, socioeconomic and substance use parameters presented in table 1 into 2 regression models with the physical component summary score (Table 2) and the mental component summary score (Table 3) as dependent variables, we found that male gender, A-level, and being employed were positively associated with a significant increase in physical Health related Quality of Life (HRQoL)
Summary
Quality of life is associated with substance use as well as socioeconomic status. Recent investigators have shown in different settings that substance use is associated with impaired Health related Quality of Life (HRQoL). HRQoL can be improved by therapeutic intervention in patients with alcohol use disorders. In patients with illicit drug use, Falck et al [5] (2000; 443 not-in-treatment crack-cocaine smokers in USA) found a negative association between drug use and all SF-36 domains except "physical functioning". Too, a decrease in substance use led to improvement in HRQoL: Richter et al [7] (2004; 100 multiple substance users in Germany) found a significant improvement in the SF-36 domains of "general health" and "physical functioning" in 48 patients at follow-up
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