Role of alcohol in urgent ambulance contacts in 15-24-year-olds in Copenhagen: a descriptive population-based study

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to estimate the proportion of alcohol-related ambulance contacts and to describe characteristics of these contacts in young people.

DESIGN: A descriptive population-based study with alcohol-related ambulance contacts identified from free texts in prehospital medical records by a two-stepped approach; an automatic search for specific keywords followed by manual verification.

SETTING: Copenhagen, Denmark.

PARTICIPANTS: A random sample (n=26 600) of all ambulance contacts in 15-24-year-olds between 10 March 2015 and 1 November 2022.

MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURE: Proportion and relative proportion (RP) of alcohol-related ambulance contacts.

RESULTS: Of all ambulance contacts, 16% (n=4145) were alcohol related. Most alcohol-related contacts had acute alcohol intoxication (46%) as the primary cause followed by accident (23%). Alcohol-related contacts followed a clear circadian pattern with most contacts during night-time, peaking on Saturday and Sunday mornings between 03:00 and 04:00 hours with 59% and 55% of ambulance contacts being alcohol related. Compared with Mondays, the number of all ambulance contacts was 46% and 38% higher on Fridays and Saturdays, which was attributable to the large number of alcohol-related contacts. Alcohol-related contacts were more frequent in males compared with females (RP 1.46 (95% CI 1.37 to 1.55)) and equally frequent in 15-17- and 18-24-year-olds (RP 1.04, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.13).

CONCLUSION: A large proportion of ambulance dispatches in young people is attributable to excessive alcohol drinking, even among minors. This emphasises a need for preventive measures to reduce the harmful effects of binge drinking in youth and the impact on the healthcare system.