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. 2017 May 29;7(5):e014913.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014913.

Trends in alcohol-related injury admissions in adolescents in Western Australia and England: population-based cohort study

Melissa O'Donnell  1 , Scott Sims  1 , Miriam J Maclean  1 , Arturo Gonzalez-Izquierdo  2 , Ruth Gilbert  3 , Fiona J Stanley  1
Affiliations

Trends in alcohol-related injury admissions in adolescents in Western Australia and England: population-based cohort study

Melissa O'Donnell et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Background: Alcohol-related harm in young people is now a global health priority. We examined trends in hospital admissions for alcohol-related injuries for adolescents in Western Australia (WA) and in England, identified groups most at risk and determined causes of injuries.

Methods: Annual incidence rates for alcohol-related injury rates were calculated using population-level hospital admissions data for WA and England. We compared trends in different types of alcohol-related injury by age and gender.

Results: Despite a decrease in the overall rate of injury admissions for people aged 13-17 years in WA, alcohol-related injuries have increased significantly from 1990 to 2009 (from 8 to 12 per 10 000). Conversely, alcohol-related injury rates have declined in England since 2007. In England, self-harm is the most frequently recorded cause of alcohol-related injury. In WA, unintentional injury is most common; however, violence-related harm is increasing for boys and girls.

Conclusion: Alcohol-related harm of sufficient severity to require hospital admission is increasing among adolescents in WA. Declining trends in England suggest that this trend is not inevitable or irreversible. More needs to be done to address alcohol-related harm, and on-going monitoring is required to assess the effectiveness of strategies.

Keywords: Injury rates; adolescents; alcohol; trends; youth.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Rate of hospital admissions for alcohol-related injury in Western Australia and England (per 10 000 persons) for adolescents aged 13–15 and 16–17 years. Light solid=alcohol-related injury (13–15 years); dark solid=alcohol-related injury (16–17 years).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Rate of intentional and unintentional alcohol-related injury hospital admissions in Western Australia and England (per 10 000 persons) for adolescents aged 13–15 and 16–17 years. Light dash=intentional (13–15 years); light solid=unintentional (13–15 years); dark dash=intentional (16–17 years); dark solid=unintentional (16–17 years).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Rate of intentional alcohol-related injury hospital admissions in Western Australia and England (per 10 000 persons) for adolescents aged 13–17 years, by violence-related and self-harm admissions. Dark dash=violence related (13–17 years); dark solid=self-harm (13–17 years).
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