Blood alcohol level in patients with road traffic injury at Songklanagarind Hospital

• Main Authors: P Sripetch, S Pradutkanchana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Prince of Songkla University 2008-04-01
• Series: Journal of Health Science and Medical Research (JHSMR)
• Subjects: blood alcohol level; accident; songklanagarind hospital
• Online Access: https://www.jhsmr.org/index.php/jhsmr/article/view/682
• ISSN: 2586-9981; 2630-0559

We conducted a longitudinal retrospective study from all road traffic injured cases who were admitted at Songklanagarind Hospital during January to December 2005 from the database of the Division of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University. The total of 1,220 cases comprised 951 (78.0%) males and 267 (21.9%) females. Among 503 (52.9%) male accident cases who had blood alcohol level higher than 50 mg%, the cases that had blood alcohol level between 101-150 mg% were the highest (149 cases; 15.7%), followed by the cases that had blood alcohol level between 151-200 mg% (136 cases; 14.3%), while only 35 (13.1%) female cases had blood alcohol level higher than 50 mg%. Most of these females cases had blood alcohol level between 101-150 mg% (12 cases; 4.5%). The relationship between blood alcohol level and sex was statistically significant (p-value  <  0.05). The average age of these accident cases was 30.8 years with a standard deviation of 13.1 years. The age between 15-20 years was the most frequent (274 cases; 22.6%), followed by the age between 2-25 years (244 cases; 20.1%). The relationship between age and blood alcohol level was statistically significant. Although the vehicle accident rates are declining, they are still high. Drunk Don't Drive Campaign or strictly following the traffic law is essential to reduce vehicle accidents.