P108: Alcohol-related emergency department visits by youth aged 12-24: trends over 4 years in one Canadian centre

Abstract

Introduction: Recent evidence shows an increase in alcohol-related emergency department (ED) visits among youth. Highly publicized collegiate rituals such as Homecoming may create a climate for problematic alcohol use. This study describes the frequency of youth alcohol-related ED visits per year and during pre-specified ritualized drinking dates in one academic centre. Methods: This was a chart review of patients aged 12-24 with alcohol-related ED presentations between Sept 2013-Aug 2017. The National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS) database was searched for visits with ICD-10 codes related to alcohol. The Canadian Hospital Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) database was also searched using the keyword alcohol. Duplicate visits were removed. Visits were excluded if patients had a history of psychosis, were held in the ED for involuntary psychiatric assessment, were homeless, were inmates from a correctional institute, if alcohol use was not mentioned and for complaints of sexual assault/domestic violence. Data abstraction by two reviewers used a standard form with variables predetermined. Differences were resolved with third party adjudication. Interrater reliability of the reviewers was assessed through duplicate review of 10% of randomly selected charts. A further 10% were assessed by a 3rd reviewer for extraction accuracy. Results: A total of 3,256 ED visits were identified with 777 meeting exclusion criteria. The remaining 2,479 visits were reviewed and subclassified into injury (51.8%), acute intoxication (45.1%) and mental health issue (3.2%). Interrater agreement was high for extracted variables with Kappa scores > 0.8. Despite a decrease in the region's youth population during the study period (28,325 to 25,125), overall standardized ED visits by youth increased by 12% (66,538 to 78,129). Adjusted for population, youth alcohol-related visits increased by 86.4% from 1,557 in 2013-14 to 2,902 in 2016-17. Co-ingestion of other substances was reported in 292 (11.8%) of visits, with cannabis the most common (57%). The 17 pre-specified ritualized days saw 578 (23.3%) of ED visits. Conclusion: Alcohol-related ED visits in youth are increasing in our region. Ritualized drinking dates appear to be particularly risky for youth with high rates of observed ED utilization. Strategies to manage high volume ritual days are being piloted, including temporary diversion to an in-hospital sobriety centre.