Amy E Peden1, Richard C Franklin2, Peter A Leggat3. 1. Royal Life Saving Society - Australia, PO Box 558, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia; College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, Division of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia. Electronic address: apeden@rlssa.org.au. 2. Royal Life Saving Society - Australia, PO Box 558, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia; College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, Division of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia. 3. College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, Division of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia; Research School of Population Health, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Examine the prevalence of alcohol and its contributory role in unintentional fatal river drowning in Australia to inform strategies for prevention. METHODS: Cases of unintentional fatal river drowning in Australia, 1-July-2002 to 30-June-2012, were extracted from the National Coronial Information System. Cases with positive alcohol readings found through autopsy or toxicology reports were retained for analysis. Discrete analysis was conducted on cases with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of ≥0.05% (0.05grams of alcohol in every 100 millilitres of blood). RESULTS: Alcohol was known to be involved in 314 cases (40.8%), 279 recorded a positive BAC, 196 (70.3%) recorded a BAC of ≥0.05%. 40.3% of adult victims had a BAC of ≥0.20%. Known alcohol involvement was found to be more likely for victims who drowned as a result of jumping in (χ2=7.8; p<0.01), identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (χ2=8.9; p<0.01) and drowned in the evening (χ2=7.8; p<0.01) and early morning (χ2=16.1; p<0.01) hours. DISCUSSION: The number of people who drown with alcohol in their bloodstream is concerning and challenging for prevention. To assist with the prevention of alcohol related river drowning improved data quality, as well as a greater understanding of alcohol's contribution and consumption patterns at rivers (especially those <18 years of age) is required. CONCLUSION: Alcohol contributes to fatal unintentional drowning in Australian rivers. Although prevention is challenging, better data and exposure studies are the next step to enhance prevention efforts.
OBJECTIVE: Examine the prevalence of alcohol and its contributory role in unintentional fatal river drowning in Australia to inform strategies for prevention. METHODS: Cases of unintentional fatal river drowning in Australia, 1-July-2002 to 30-June-2012, were extracted from the National Coronial Information System. Cases with positive alcohol readings found through autopsy or toxicology reports were retained for analysis. Discrete analysis was conducted on cases with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of ≥0.05% (0.05grams of alcohol in every 100 millilitres of blood). RESULTS:Alcohol was known to be involved in 314 cases (40.8%), 279 recorded a positive BAC, 196 (70.3%) recorded a BAC of ≥0.05%. 40.3% of adult victims had a BAC of ≥0.20%. Known alcohol involvement was found to be more likely for victims who drowned as a result of jumping in (χ2=7.8; p<0.01), identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (χ2=8.9; p<0.01) and drowned in the evening (χ2=7.8; p<0.01) and early morning (χ2=16.1; p<0.01) hours. DISCUSSION: The number of people who drown with alcohol in their bloodstream is concerning and challenging for prevention. To assist with the prevention of alcohol related river drowning improved data quality, as well as a greater understanding of alcohol's contribution and consumption patterns at rivers (especially those <18 years of age) is required. CONCLUSION:Alcohol contributes to fatal unintentional drowning in Australian rivers. Although prevention is challenging, better data and exposure studies are the next step to enhance prevention efforts.
Authors: Ben Beck; Karen Smith; Eric Mercier; Belinda Gabbe; Richard Bassed; Biswadev Mitra; Warwick Teague; Josine Siedenburg; Susan McLellan; Peter Cameron Journal: PLoS One Date: 2019-06-04 Impact factor: 3.240
Authors: Richard Charles Franklin; Amy E Peden; Erin B Hamilton; Catherine Bisignano; Chris D Castle; Zachary V Dingels; Simon I Hay; Zichen Liu; Ali H Mokdad; Nicholas L S Roberts; Dillon O Sylte; Theo Vos; Gdiom Gebreheat Abady; Akine Eshete Abosetugn; Rushdia Ahmed; Fares Alahdab; Catalina Liliana Andrei; Carl Abelardo T Antonio; Jalal Arabloo; Aseb Arba Kinfe Arba; Ashish D Badiye; Shankar M Bakkannavar; Maciej Banach; Palash Chandra Banik; Amrit Banstola; Suzanne Lyn Barker-Collo; Akbar Barzegar; Mohsen Bayati; Pankaj Bhardwaj; Soumyadeep Bhaumik; Zulfiqar A Bhutta; Ali Bijani; Archith Boloor; Félix Carvalho; Mohiuddin Ahsanul Kabir Chowdhury; Dinh-Toi Chu; Samantha M Colquhoun; Henok Dagne; Baye Dagnew; Lalit Dandona; Rakhi Dandona; Ahmad Daryani; Samath Dhamminda Dharmaratne; Zahra Sadat Dibaji Forooshani; Hoa Thi Do; Tim Robert Driscoll; Arielle Wilder Eagan; Ziad El-Khatib; Eduarda Fernandes; Irina Filip; Florian Fischer; Berhe Gebremichael; Gaurav Gupta; Juanita A Haagsma; Shoaib Hassan; Delia Hendrie; Chi Linh Hoang; Michael K Hole; Ramesh Holla; Sorin Hostiuc; Mowafa Househ; Olayinka Stephen Ilesanmi; Leeberk Raja Inbaraj; Seyed Sina Naghibi Irvani; M Mofizul Islam; Rebecca Q Ivers; Achala Upendra Jayatilleke; Farahnaz Joukar; Rohollah Kalhor; Tanuj Kanchan; Neeti Kapoor; Amir Kasaeian; Maseer Khan; Ejaz Ahmad Khan; Jagdish Khubchandani; Kewal Krishan; G Anil Kumar; Paolo Lauriola; Alan D Lopez; Mohammed Madadin; Marek Majdan; Venkatesh Maled; Navid Manafi; Ali Manafi; Martin McKee; Hagazi Gebre Meles; Ritesh G Menezes; Tuomo J Meretoja; Ted R Miller; Prasanna Mithra; Abdollah Mohammadian-Hafshejani; Reza Mohammadpourhodki; Farnam Mohebi; Mariam Molokhia; Ghulam Mustafa; Ionut Negoi; Cuong Tat Nguyen; Huong Lan Thi Nguyen; Andrew T Olagunju; Tinuke O Olagunju; Jagadish Rao Padubidri; Keyvan Pakshir; Ashish Pathak; Suzanne Polinder; Dimas Ria Angga Pribadi; Navid Rabiee; Amir Radfar; Saleem Muhammad Rana; Jennifer Rickard; Saeed Safari; Payman Salamati; Abdallah M Samy; Abdur Razzaque Sarker; David C Schwebel; Subramanian Senthilkumaran; Faramarz Shaahmadi; Masood Ali Shaikh; Jae Il Shin; Pankaj Kumar Singh; Amin Soheili; Mark A Stokes; Hafiz Ansar Rasul Suleria; Ingan Ukur Tarigan; Mohamad-Hani Temsah; Berhe Etsay Tesfay; Pascual R Valdez; Yousef Veisani; Pengpeng Ye; Naohiro Yonemoto; Chuanhua Yu; Hasan Yusefzadeh; Sojib Bin Zaman; Zhi-Jiang Zhang; Spencer L James Journal: Inj Prev Date: 2020-02-20 Impact factor: 2.399
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