J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2020 Aug;31(4):355-361.

Effects of alcohol intake on the severity of injuries during riding a bicycle

• Seo MJ
• Cho JS
• Lim YS
• Yang HJ
• Woo JH
• Choi WS

Abstract

Objective
When bike riding under the influence of alcohol, incidence of injury increases, although reports of highly severe injuries is rare. Therefore, this study aimed to determine how drinking alcohol affects bicycle injuries.
Methods
This study included patients who visited the emergency departments at 23 hospitals. Participants were enrolled in the emergency department-based injury in-depth surveillance program of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were over 15-years-old, and were injured while riding a bike either with or without alcohol intake. Patients with important data missing or insufficient data such as Excess Mortality Ratio-adjusted Injury Severity Score (EMR-ISS) were excluded from the analysis.
Results
A total of 28,094 patients were analyzed. The alcohol-intake group numbered 1,946 (6.9%) while the non-alcohol-intake group numbered 26,148 (93.1%). The incidence of severe injury (EMR-ISS≥25) in the alcohol-intake group was 451 (23.2%), whereas that in the non-alcohol-intake group was 2,881 (11.0%), which was statistically different between the two groups (P<0.001). According to multivariate logistic regression, the odds ratio of severe injuries in the alcohol-intake group was 2.04 (95% confidence interval, 1.80-2.30) compared to the non-alcohol-intake group after adjusting for age, alcohol use, type of road, sex, injury time, and transportation.
Conclusion
Alcohol is associated with an increase in the incidence of severe injuries. Therefore, as part of preventive measures, it will be necessary to tighten regulations on post-drinking bike riding and improve awareness through public relations.

Keyword

Alcohols; Bicycling; Traffic accidents