Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
People who regularly drink alcohol are three times as likely to die from injury as are non-drinkers and former drinkers of alcohol, according to new research from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
This is the first study to examine drinking behavior in relation to all major categories of injuries. In particular, the study authors found that the risk of drowning was most strongly related to current drinkers. The study will be published in the March 2005 issue of Accident Analysis and Prevention.
"Previous studies have focused on the effect of acute alcohol use on the risk of injury. We looked at the relationship between a person's usual drinking behavior and the major categories of fatal injury," said Li-Hui Chen, PhD, lead author of the study and an assistant scientist in the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Health Policy and Management.
The researchers reviewed data from two nationwide surveys: 5,549 people who died of injury and were included in the 1993 National Mortality Followback Survey, and 42,698 people who participated in the 1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey.
Gender Differences Noted
The Hopkins researchers examined the relationship between usual drinking behavior and the major categories of injury: motor vehicle injuries; unintentional falls, fire deaths, drowning and poisoning; suicide by poisoning, firearm and hanging, strangulation or suffocation; firearm-related homicide; and other homicide.
The researchers found that drinkers, defined as anyone who had at least 12 drinks in the survey year, had a higher risk of dying from each cause of injury when compared to non-drinkers and former drinkers. The greatest increase in risk was for drowning: drinkers were 3.6 times as likely to drown as non-drinkers.
The researchers also learned that female drinkers had a greater increase in risk of committing suicide or homicide than male drinkers.
Significantly Increased Risk
The study authors said these gender differences might be due to physiological factors. Past studies have shown that for the same alcohol intake, blood alcohol concentrations rise more quickly, reach a higher peak and stay elevated for a longer time in women.
"Our study found that 54 to 64 percent of injury deaths occur in current drinkers. It is clear that drinking is associated with a significantly increased risk of all types of fatal injury. Falls may be an exception because most fall deaths occur in the elderly, who are less likely to be drinkers. Our most notable finding was that current drinking increased the risk more for drowning than for other fatal injuries," said co-author Susan P. Baker, MPH, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The researchers hope that their study leads to greater understanding and awareness of the role of alcohol consumption in all fatal injuries.
Non- AA Approved
This is the first study to examine drinking behavior in relation to all major categories of injuries. In particular, the study authors found that the risk of drowning was most strongly related to current drinkers. The study will be published in the March 2005 issue of Accident Analysis and Prevention.
"Previous studies have focused on the effect of acute alcohol use on the risk of injury. We looked at the relationship between a person's usual drinking behavior and the major categories of fatal injury," said Li-Hui Chen, PhD, lead author of the study and an assistant scientist in the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Health Policy and Management.
The researchers reviewed data from two nationwide surveys: 5,549 people who died of injury and were included in the 1993 National Mortality Followback Survey, and 42,698 people who participated in the 1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey.
Gender Differences Noted
The Hopkins researchers examined the relationship between usual drinking behavior and the major categories of injury: motor vehicle injuries; unintentional falls, fire deaths, drowning and poisoning; suicide by poisoning, firearm and hanging, strangulation or suffocation; firearm-related homicide; and other homicide.
The researchers found that drinkers, defined as anyone who had at least 12 drinks in the survey year, had a higher risk of dying from each cause of injury when compared to non-drinkers and former drinkers. The greatest increase in risk was for drowning: drinkers were 3.6 times as likely to drown as non-drinkers.
The researchers also learned that female drinkers had a greater increase in risk of committing suicide or homicide than male drinkers.
Significantly Increased Risk
The study authors said these gender differences might be due to physiological factors. Past studies have shown that for the same alcohol intake, blood alcohol concentrations rise more quickly, reach a higher peak and stay elevated for a longer time in women.
"Our study found that 54 to 64 percent of injury deaths occur in current drinkers. It is clear that drinking is associated with a significantly increased risk of all types of fatal injury. Falls may be an exception because most fall deaths occur in the elderly, who are less likely to be drinkers. Our most notable finding was that current drinking increased the risk more for drowning than for other fatal injuries," said co-author Susan P. Baker, MPH, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The researchers hope that their study leads to greater understanding and awareness of the role of alcohol consumption in all fatal injuries.
Non- AA Approved
I have mentioned this story before, however, I can vividly recall a while back taking a swim in the middle of the night toasted. Well, I don't really remember the swim, nor all the bruises from obviously hitting something or falling during this midnight escapade...instead I had a blackout, alone, and went for a swim AFTER I remember going to bed. I woke up in my bathing suit (at least I thought not to go skinny dipping) soaking wet in my bed. I could have been Natalie Woods...(prominent actress who died at Catalina Island from drowning). She was intoxicated.
Quite frankly, I was appalled at the immaturity I found i the rooms about this, especially among elderly oldtimers. It was then another ten years or so before I finally found one person in the fellowship with whom I could share what I'd been going through, and by then I had tapped other resources to cope with it.
I also had this terrible habit of rushing from work to the Pub on Friday nights and drink to blackout and then go home. But I would decide (in blackout) that I was hungry. So I would put Two Minute Noodles in a pot with water on the stove but then pass out on the sofa. I did this many times and obviusly I am still here but I would wake up to a flat full of smoke and a fire starting, which I stopped. People die in flat and house fires this way everyday.
My overall drinking lifestyle was just so ridden with life threatening risks. I would go off into the night with strangers, many of them very very dangerous men. And I would walk through traffic in the hgih density area I lived in, in full blackout. I know of people who died that way - people I knew I mean.
And there are endless other tales of high-risk taking.
It is truly amazing I am still here.
Wendy