The study included data from 13 emergency rooms in the United States,
Mexico, Canada, Australia, Spain, Italy, Argentina and Poland.
“Dry” culture drinkers, those who live in
societies where drinking is infrequent but heavy, are less likely to
draw a link between
alcohol and injury, say Cheryl Cherpitel, Dr.P.H., of the Alcohol Research
Group and colleagues.
Their findings are published in the November issue of Alcoholism:
Clinical and Experimental Research.
The dry culture effect was most noticeable among those
who reported a bout of binge drinking — five or more drinks on one occasion — within
the past year. Typically, heavy drinkers from all cultures are more likely
to attribute their emergency room injuries to alcohol than lighter drinkers
are, the researchers found.
Cherpitel and colleagues say that people may be less likely
to link alcohol with their injuries in dry societies, fearful that they
may be denied
insurance payments or face “other risks which may be incurred by
the patient in being blamed for his misconduct.”
Recognizing a link between alcohol and injury may be a
sign that some drinkers want to change their habits, the researchers
say, noting that “the
success of motivation-based intervention may be less likely in those
societies exhibiting more detrimental patterns of drinking.”
Patients in the study were asked about how much alcohol they drank in
the six hours before their injury and whether they felt drunk at the time,
along with questions about their usual drinking habits.
Each of these factors, as well as blood alcohol levels, affected whether
the patients saw alcohol as the cause of their injuries. The strength of
these effects varied among the 13 emergency room, however.
The study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism.
