Alcohol consumption and injury in Western Australia: a spatial correlation analysis using geographic information systems.

Geographic information systems technology was used to describe, in geographical terms, the nature and strength of the relationship in Western Australia between alcohol consumption and the rates of related injury: night-time assaults (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.); minor night-time road crashes (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.), weighted by traffic density; and hospital E-code (external-cause) morbidity, weighted by alcohol aetiologic fractions. The data were aggregated by five conventional state regions: northern, central, western, southern and Perth metropolitan. There was a general association, of equal significance for males and females, between estimated per capita alcohol consumption and the selected rates of injury in the five regions. However, the nature and strength of association between alcohol consumption and individual injury measures varied. Night-time assaults and hospital E-code morbidity were strongly, associated with consumption. Minor night-time crashes had only a weak association. The variation in the relationship between alcohol consumption and injury suggests that prevention strategies need to take into account the particular drinking patterns and associated harm that occur in different regions of the state, and to develop a range of targeted responses. High rates of consumption and injury in most country areas support the need for greater regional prevention efforts.