@article{ref1,
title="Autopsy study of alcohol-associated unnatural deaths in Thailand, 2007-2019",
journal="Alcohol (Hanover, York County, Pa.)",
year="2023",
author="Sribanditmongkol, Pongruk and Junkuy, Anongphan and Homkham, Nontiya and Worasuwannarak, Wisarn and Hess, Jeffrey A.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="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. <br><br>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. <br><br>METHODS Core study sample (n=77,006) was derived from Thai government computerized database of unnatural-death autopsies. <br><br>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. <br><br>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  <p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2993-7175",
doi="10.1111/acer.15185",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acer.15185"
}