Results of two emergency room studies.

The aim of this paper is to examine to what extent cultural differences in male drinking patterns mediate relationships between alcohol and injury in a Polish context. Male patients admitted to emergency rooms located in two culturally different regions were investigated. Data analysis showed significant differences in patients' socio-demographic characteristics, their drinking patterns as well as their annual alcohol consumption. Logistic regression, however, has not confirmed any impact of site, drinking pattern and their interactions on the risk of injury. The risk of injury tended to decline with age, being more than two times lower for men over 50 years old, and was 2.4 times higher for those with an annual consumption of 12+ liters of pure alcohol.