| Summary: | 碩士 === 長庚大學 === 護理學研究所 === 95 === The purposes of this study was to explore: (1) the prevalence rate of hazardous drinking among Emergency Room (ER) patients; (2) the differences in demography between ER patients with and without hazardous drinking; (3) the differences in clinical features between ER patients with and without hazardous drinking; (4) the differences in medical treatment utilization between ER patients with and without hazardous drinking; and (5) the risk factors associated with ER patients with hazardous drinking. Cross-sectional design was adopted using convenience sampling technique and the emergency room of a regional hospital in northern Taiwan as a study site. All patients who came to that hospital during the period from May 17, 2007 to May 27, 2007 and met the following inclusive criteria, were recruited as study subjects: (1) the patient's condition was stable and were conscious; (2) the patient understood Mandarin or Taiwanese; and (3) aged 18 or older. A structural questionnaire was designed to collect the necessary data. A total of 1,000 suitable subjects were interviewed. Their responses were analyzed. Based on the categorizations derived from AUDIT, there were 388 subjects (38.8%) with alcohol drinking habit (AUDIT≧1), and 186 subjects (18.6%) with hazardous drinking (AUDIT≧8). The latter accommodate for 48% of the total number of alcohol drinking subjects. Among them, there were 58 persons (5.8%) having alcohol-dependency. There were significant differences in gender, age, education degree, marital status, working condition, working hours, dwelling location and place between groups with and without alcohol drinking. Moreover, the subjects with hazardous drinking had higher morbidity of liver diseases, digestive system ulcer, pancreatitis, necrosis of the head of femur and gastrointestinal bleeding than those without hazardous drinking. They had a higher frequency of using the ER and being hospitalized. Finally, a multiple logistic regression was conducted to determine factors that could predict the risk for hazardous drinking among these subjects. The factors were male, young aged, low education degree, self purchased dwelling location, and having alcohol drinking habit. Further analysis on alcohol drinking habit showed that the subjects with alcohol drinking habit of less than 5 years, they became hazardous drinking 97.75 times of those without alcohol drinking habit. For these with alcohol drinking habit of 5 to 10 years, it happened to them 149 times. With more than 10 years, it was 506.34 times. Based on the study results, it was suggested that health care workers should consider more preventive measures and be highly sensitive to patients’ alcohol drinking behavior, so that active screening of alcohol drinking problems and appropriate health education about how to reduce alcohol drinking can be provided. If effective, this approach may prevent patients from potential harms to their health, family and society in the future.
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