Fræðigrein

Læknablaðið 2007; 93: 183-87

Objective: The records of the emergency room of Landspitali University Hospital in Iceland provide important information on the prevalence and incidence of various problems. The objective of this research is to evaluate the reliability of data concerning the visits of adolescents under the influence of alcohol.

Data and methods: Records of visits to the Emergency Room of Landspitali University Hospital by 14-16 year old capital region adolescents are compared with the results of a survey in early 2003. The correspondence between hospital records and adolescent self-reports is compared to the correspondence between records and self-reports of the presence of alcohol in visits.

Results: In all cases students report more emergency room visits than are recorded by Landspitali University Hospital. The difference is 4.2% (± 0.6%) in accident visits and 2.2% (± 0.2%) in violence visits. In the case of the presence of alcohol in visits the difference is 9.3% (± 0.4%) between hospital records (0.2%) and adolescent self-reports (9.5%).

Conclusion: The records of Landspitali University Hospital are not a valid source of information on alcohol-related problems among adolescents. About one in ten adolescents in the capital region of Iceland claim to have visited an emergency room because of their own alcohol consumption but hospital records of the presence of alcohol only include about 1/60 of that number.

Table I. Overview of data.

Cohorts 1987 and 1988, Iceland	Males	Females	Total
Population December 1, 2002, according to the Icelandic Statistical Bureau	4606	4201	8806
Participants in ESPAD, March 2003	3604	3364	6968
Visits to LSH Emergency Room, 2002	727	447	1.174
Individuals visiting LSH Emergency Room, 2002	592	374	966
Cohorts 1987 and 1988, Capital Region1)	Males	Females	Total
Population December 1, 2002, according to the Icelandic Statistical Bureau	2694	2476	5170
Participants in ESPAD, March 2003	2046	1940	3986
Number of visits to LSH Emergency Room, 2002	671	413	1.084
Individuals visiting LSH Emergency Room, 2002	538	342	880

1) Postal codes 101–150, 170, 200, 201, 203, 210, 220, 221, 225, 270.

 

Table II. Visits of Capital Region cohorts born 1987 and 1988 to the Landspítali Emergency Room in 2002.

	Frequency	Proportion	ESPAD estimator	Confidence interval (95%)
Visits because of accidents
Males and Females	793	15.3%	19.5%	±0.6%
Males	490	18.2%	2.8%	±0.9%
Females	303	12.2%	16.1%	±0.8%
Visits because of violence
Males and Females	33	0.6%	2.8%	±0.2%
Males	29	1.1%	3.7%	±0.4%
Females	4	0.2%	2.0%	±0.3%
Alcohol-related visits
Males and Females	8	0.2%	9.5%	±0.4%
Males	6	0.2%	12.6%	±0.7%
Females	2	0.1%	6.2%	±0.5%
Visits because of heavy intoxication
Males and Females	1	0.0%	0.7%	±0.1%
Males	0	0.0%	1.1%	±0.2%
Females	1	0.0%	0.3%	±0.1%