Alcohol involved in over 62,000 accidents treated in emergency rooms in 2023

People who ended up hurt in the emergency room of the hospital in 2023 had consumed alcohol before their injury more often than previously thought. Research by VeilgheidNL showed that approximately one in ten victims in the emergency department had consumed alcohol. Based on this, the knowledge center estimates that in 2023 there were over 62,000 accidents in which alcohol played a role, such as a fall down the stairs or on the street. That is three times more than registered in the emergency department systems.

Doctors and nurses in the emergency department only report alcohol use if they consider it relevant to the diagnosis or treatment. That is why it was already known that the actual number of accidents involving alcohol was higher, but precise figures were unavailable. Almost 2,600 emergency room patients completed a questionnaire for the VeiligheidNL study. Of these, 290 victims indicated that they had consumed alcohol. They most often mentioned their own behavior as the cause of their accident, followed by the “environment.”

Almost three-quarters of the emergency room patients who indicated that they had drunk alcohol had consumed more than two glasses of an alcoholic beverage. Three out of five victims were male. Furthermore, 32 percent were older than 55 years and 29 percent were aged 18 to 24 years. According to VeiligheidNL, the victims generally drank alcohol more often than the average Dutch person, namely every day, a few times a week, or weekly.

VeiligheidNL also found that teenage girls ended up in the emergency room with alcohol poisoning more often than boys. In the age category of 12 to 17 years, 60 percent of emergency room visits for alcohol poisoning were girls.

In 2023, emergency rooms treated approximately 4,400 patients with alcohol poisoning. In almost a quarter of the cases, the patient was under 18. More than half of these teenagers were admitted to the hospital after visiting the emergency room.

“Although the trend among 12 to 17-year-olds has stabilized in recent years, this is mainly due to a decrease in alcohol poisoning among boys,” said VeiligheiNL director Martijnte Bakker. “The increase among girls requires attention, and further research is needed to gain more insight into the underlying causes of this.”

State Secretary Vincent Karremans of Youth, Prevention, and Sport says he is shocked by how many people end up in the emergency room due to alcohol consumption, “and what the impact of this is, also on healthcare and society.” In a letter to parliament, he writes that he will include the insights from the research in a prevention strategy.