ABSTRACT
Although a large amount of literature exists on alcohol’s role in various casualties (reviewed in Aarens et al. 1977, Roizen 1982), the usual focus of most studies has been specific areas such as motor vehicle accidents and fatalities rather than injuries (for example, Haberman and Baden 1978). It has been suggested that a number of both fatal and non-fatal casualties are more likely to arise among alcoholics or heavy drinkers than among other persons (US Department of Health and Human Services 1983), and the potential for some of these problems to occur may be heightened by even moderate consumption (Moore and Gerstein 1981). Much of the data linking alcohol consumption to fatal and non-fatal events has been derived from reports of trauma histories among alcoholics or heavy drinkers and case series reports for various types of casualties. Good epidemiologic studies in this area are largely lacking, with a few exceptions.
