Alcohol use : underestimated in facial fracture patients?

ABSTRACT Purpose; The investigators hypothesized that the role of alcohol in facial fracture etiology and patients’ daily life may be underestimated. Methods; A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted. Alcohol consumption habits were evaluated according to brief intervention and the data was collected with a constructed questionnaire and interview. After review of the patient records, a case-related data collection was performed with the primary predictor variables being mechanism of injury; fracture type; associated injury (any). Outcome variables were alcohol involved in injury (yes/no) and heavy alcohol use (yes/no). The explanatory variables were gender and age. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were computed, and the P value was set at .05. Results; A total of 166 patients were included in the study. 55% of patients reported being under the influence of alcohol during the injury. Alcohol was involved most often in males (P = .0006) and younger age groups (P < .0001); however, it was present in 22% of the cases among the elderly as well. 17% of patients reported heavy alcohol use habits. The majority of the interpersonal violence events had taken place under the influence of alcohol (84%, P < .0001). Patients who were under the influence of alcohol during injury were more often heavy users (P < .0001). There was no correlation between alcohol involvement during injury and associated injuries or type of fracture. Conclusions; The role of alcohol among facial fracture etiology is considerably high. A brief intervention of alcohol should be included routinely in patient care to identify and, if necessary, address the patient's alcohol use in heavy drinkers and to obtain more evidence about the role of alcohol in facial fracture etiology.Målet var att undersöka sambandet mellan ansiktsfrakturer och patienternas alcohol förbrukning. Hypotesen var att tidigare forskning, som har för det mesta varit retrospektivt, har underestimerat alkoholets betydelse i etiologin för ansiktsfrakturer. Vår undersökning utfördes prospektivt och 166 patienter deltog under året 2018. Patienter över 18 år med ansiktsfrakturer intervjuades och deras alkoholvanor utvärderades. Därpå utfördes en kort intervention för patienter som klassificierades vara alkohol missbrukare (över 16 doser alkohol per vecka för kvinnor och över 24 för män). Utöver detta utreddes fraktur typen och orsaken för olyckan. Informationen från intervjun combinerades med informationen från patienjournalen, varefter datan analyserades. Signifikansanalys utfördes där gränsen för P-värdet var 0,05. Majoriteten av patienterna (55%) var berusade då olyckan skedde och 17% av patienterna klassifierads som alkoholmissbrukare. Vanligaste patientgruppen var unga män (P=0,0006) och dessa var också oftast berusade, dock var även 22% av över 60-åringar berusade (P<0,0001). Största delen (84%) av misshandlingarna skedde under påverkan av alkohol (P