Alcohol and injury in emergency departments : summary of the report from the WHO collaborative study on alcohol and injuries

Overview

Worldwide there are approximately 5.2 million deaths from injuries every year and non-fatal injuries account for about one-tenth of the global burden of disease. Injuries may be divided into two categories: unintentional injuries, including road traffic injuries, drowning, burns, poisoning and falls; and intentional injuries, which result from deliberate acts of violence against oneself or others. Alcohol is consumed by large proportions of adults in most countries around the world.

Though not causing significant problems for most drinkers, alcohol use is associated with numerous negative consequences for the drinker and society at large. Globally alcohol causes 3.2% of all deaths or 1.8 million deaths annually and accounts for 4.0% of disease burden. Many of these deaths are the result of injuries caused by hazardous and harmful drinking. Of the total number of alcohol-attributable deaths, 32.0% are from unintentional injuries, and 13.7% are from intentional injuries. This means that about half of the deaths attributable to alcohol are from injuries.