Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Jul 1;110(1-2):108-16.
doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2010.02.011. Epub 2010 Mar 16.

The more you drink, the harder you fall: a systematic review and meta-analysis of how acute alcohol consumption and injury or collision risk increase together

B Taylor  1 , H M Irving, F Kanteres, R Room, G Borges, C Cherpitel, T Greenfield, J Rehm
Affiliations

The more you drink, the harder you fall: a systematic review and meta-analysis of how acute alcohol consumption and injury or collision risk increase together

B Taylor et al. Drug Alcohol Depend. .

Abstract

Alcohol consumption causes injury in a dose-response manner. The most common mode of sustaining an alcohol-attributable injury is from a single occasion of acute alcohol consumption, but much of the injury literature employs usual consumption habits to assess risk instead. An analysis of the acute dose-response relationship between alcohol and injury is warranted to generate single occasion- and dose-specific relative risks. A systematic literature review and meta-analysis was conducted to fill this gap. Linear and best-fit first-order model were used to model the data. Usual tests of heterogeneity and publication bias were run. Separate meta-analyses were run for motor vehicle and non-motor vehicle injuries, as well as case-control and case-crossover studies. The risk of injury increases non-linearly with increasing alcohol consumption. For motor vehicle accidents, the odds ratio increases by 1.24 (95% CI: 1.18-1.31) per 10-g in pure alcohol increase to 52.0 (95% CI: 34.50-78.28) at 120 g. For non-motor vehicle injury, the OR increases by 1.30 (95% CI: 1.26-1.34) to an OR of 24.2 at 140 g (95% CI: 16.2-36.2). Case-crossover studies of non-MVA injury result in overall higher risks than case-control studies and the per-drink increase in odds of injury was highest for intentional injury, at 1.38 (95% CI: 1.22-1.55). Efforts to reduce drinking both on an individual level and a population level are important. No level of consumption is safe when driving and less than 2 drinks per occasion should be encouraged to reduce the risk of injury.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Results of the systematic review of the relationship between alcohol and injury.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Forest plot for studies of non-motor vehicle accidents only and estimated relative risks associated with a 10 g/day increase in alcohol consumption: Estimates were derived from a random effects linear model.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Forest plot for studies of motor vehicle accidents only and estimated relative risks associated with a 10 g/day increase in alcohol consumption: Estimates were derived from a random effects linear model.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Dose-response curve for the amount of alcohol consumed 3 hours prior and the odds of non-motor vehicle accident injury.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Dose-response curve for the amount of alcohol consumed 3 hours prior and the odds of motor vehicle accident injury.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anda RF, Williamson DF, Remington PL. Alcohol and fatal injuries among US adults. Findings from the NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. JAMA. 1988;260:2529–2532. - PubMed
    1. Babor T, Caetano R, Casswell S, Edwards G, Giesbrecht N, Graham K, Grube J, Gruenewald P, Hill L, Holder H, Homel R, Österberg E, Rehm J, Room R, Rossow I. Alcohol: No ordinary commodity. Research and public policy. Oxford University Press; Oxford and London: 2003.
    1. Bazargan-Hejazi S, Gaines T, Duan N, Cherpitel C. Correlates of injury among ED visits: effects of alcohol, risk perception, impulsivity, and sensation-seeking behaviours. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2007;33:101–108. - PubMed
    1. Begg CB, Mazumdar M. Operating characteristics of a rank correlation test for publication bias. Biometrics. 1994;50:1088–1101. - PubMed
    1. Borges G, Cherpitel C, Macdonald S, Giesbrecht NA, Stockwell T, Wilcox HC. A case-crossover study of acute alcohol use and suicide attempt. J Stud Alcohol. 2004;65:708–714. - PubMed

Publication types