Survey identifies risky drinking better than blood test, researchers find

Emergency room physicians can better identify risky drinking behaviors in trauma patients by administering a 10-question survey, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

The study found the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) to be 20% more effective than measuring blood alcohol level in detecting patients with at-risk drinking behaviors that may result in future ER visits.

At-risk drinking is defined as that which may lead to alcohol abuse, liver disease and other adverse consequences, typically more than four drinks per day for men and more than three drinks per day for women, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Up to half of all trauma patients have alcohol in their bloodstream at the time of admission, and at least 10% of these patients will present again to the same hospital within a year. Emergency physicians can help prevent recurring alcohol-related trauma by screening for at-risk drinking and conducting brief interventions with patients who have risky alcohol habits. Such interventions can lead to a 48% reduction in future trauma visits, according to research in the Annals of Surgery.

“Given the interactions between alcohol and trauma, screening and intervention for at-risk drinking behavior are important components of injury prevention and public health,” the study’s authors wrote.

AUDIT screenings and associated interventions are low-cost endeavors and could reduce health care spending by decreasing trauma visits.

“The potential cost savings from reducing trauma visits could amount to more than $1.8 billion a year, making screening and intervention for at-risk drinking one of the single most cost-effective preventive health care measures,” says Mark Mitchell, DO, president of the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Medicine.

The study’s authors recommend a prospective multicenter study to validate their findings and determine whether trauma recidivism is better predicted by identifying patients who engage in risky drinking versus those who were drinking around the time of injury.