Alcohol Testing and Alcohol Involvement among Violent Deaths by State, 2014–2016

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Prev Med
• Personal Author:
  Greene, Naomi ; Tomedi, Laura E. ; Cox, Mary E. ; Mello, Elizabeth ; Esser, Marissa B.
• Description:
  Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) testing rates vary across states, potentially biasing estimates of alcohol involvement in violent deaths. The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) collects information on violent deaths, including decedents' BACs. This study assessed characteristics of violent deaths by BAC testing status, and the proportion of decedents with a positive BAC or BAC ≥ 0.08 g/dL. NVDRS data from 2014 to 2016 (2014: 18 states; 2015: 27 states; 2016: 32 states) were analyzed to assess BAC testing (tested, not tested, unknown/missing) by state, decedent characteristics, and death investigation system (e.g., state medical examiner, coroners), in 2019. The proportion of violent deaths with a BAC > 0.0 or ≥ 0.08 g/dL was also assessed. Among 95,390 violent death decedents, 57.1% had a BAC test (range: 9.5% in Georgia to 95.8% in Utah), 2.3% were not tested, and 40.6% had an unknown/missing BAC testing status (range: 1.3% in Alaska to 78.0% in Georgia). Decedents who were 21-44 years, American Indian/Alaska Native or Hispanic, died by poisoning, died by undetermined intent, or were investigated by a state medical examiner were most likely to receive BAC testing. Among the violent deaths with a reported BAC, 41.1% had a positive BAC and 27.7% had a BAC ≥ 0.08 g/dL. About 2 in 5 violent deaths were missing data on alcohol testing. Increased testing and reporting of alcohol among violent deaths could inform the development and use of evidence-based prevention strategies (e.g., increasing alcohol taxes, regulating alcohol outlet density) for reducing violent deaths.
• Subjects:
  Blood Alcohol Content Cause Of Death Homicide Humans Population Surveillance Suicide Violence
• Source:
  Prev Med. 148:106527
• Pubmed ID:
  33745953
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC9159354
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; T32 CA009314/CA/NCI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U58 DP001006/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/
• Name as Subject:
  National Violent Death Reporting System (U.S.)
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; Utah
• Volume:
  148
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:80c98596abdbaeac36797e26368c7fe6e10524eec1050955bc4d9ed7f081c4be
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/119212/cdc_119212_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 139.43 KB ]