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Abstract
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Background This is the first major study of alcohol-associated unnatural deaths in Thailand and in South East Asia, an 11-nation bloc that encompasses approximately one-quarter of the world's population. Thailand leads South East Asia in per capita alcohol consumption.
OBJECTIVEs were to determine incidence of alcohol-associated unnatural deaths in terms of post-mortem blood alcohol concentration (BAC); to investigate correlations between BAC and selected demographic variables and assess instances of potential societal significance; and to evaluate incidence of co-use of alcohol and illicit substances.
METHODS Core study sample (n=77,006) was derived from Thai government computerized database of unnatural-death autopsies.
RESULTS Total autopsy sample was alcohol-positive (BAC ≥ 0.20 g/L) at 32.49%. Male autopsy cases were alcohol positive (35.52%) at approximately twice the rate of female autopsy cases (16.62 %), with significantly higher median BAC levels,1.64 g/L and 1.31 g/L, respectively. Incidence of female alcohol-positive cases with extremely high BACs (≥ 3.50 g/L) was comparable to male alcohol-positive autopsies. Victims of accidents, homicides, and suicides were alcohol-positive at 42.44%, 38.81%, and 33.25%, respectively. Drowning fatalities had the highest rate of alcohol detection (49.12%) and highest median BAC (2.47 g/L). Next highest (48.47%) were alcohol-positive road traffic fatalities (RTFs, BAC 1.92 g/L), which accounted for about one-half of all RTFs and one-third of all alcohol-positive autopsies. Of total alcohol-positive population, 8.33% tested positive for illicit substances, most commonly methamphetamine/amphetamine.
CONCLUSIONS BAC results for majority of male and female alcohol-positive victims exceeded generally accepted threshold for Heavy Episodic Drinking (0.8 g/L) and provided rare BAC-documented (≥3.50 g/L) example of gender parity in incidence of high alcohol consumption. Median BAC value for alcohol-positive RTFs (1.92 g/L) was about 10% higher than similar studies in most other countries and about four times greater than Thai legal limit for motor-vehicle operation (0.50 g/L).
Keywords: Ethanol impaired driving
Language: en |