Diagnosis-based emergency department alcohol harm surveillance: What can it tell us about acute alcohol harms at the population level?

Introduction And Aims: Acute harm from heavy drinking episodes is an increasing focus of public health policy, but capturing timely data on acute harms in the population is challenging. This study aimed to evaluate the precision of readily available administrative emergency department (ED) data in public health surveillance of acute alcohol harms.

Design And Methods: We selected a random sample of 1000 ED presentations assigned an ED diagnosis code for alcohol harms (the 'alcohol syndrome') in the New South Wales, Australia, automatic syndromic surveillance system.