A Single Drink Doubles the Odds of Ending Up in the Emergency Room: Study

Having even one drink doubles a person’s risk of ending up in the emergency room, according to an international study. A person who consumes three drinks in six hours is about 4.6 times as likely to end up in the ER compared with someone who hasn’t had any drinks.

A person who had 10 drinks in six hours was 10 times as likely to go to the ER, compared with someone who didn’t drink. The study included 13,000 people from 18 countries who were inebriated and went to the emergency room for an injury, according to The Washington Post.

Drinking increased the risk of injury in women more than in men, the study found. Increased drinking was more likely to lead to violence than to either traffic accidents or falls. The researchers found just one drink almost quadruples a person’s odds of getting into a fight and ending up in the hospital. The risk of injury from violence increases more quickly as the volume of alcohol consumed rises.

The findings appear in the journal Addiction.