ST. LOUIS (CBS St. Louis) - A new study finds that Budweiser was the drink of choice for the largest percentage of those who wound up visiting the emergency room with alcohol-related injuries.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University, found that 15 percent of those who comprise what was referred to as the “ER Market” had been drinking the staple beer of the St. Louis-based brewer before getting injured.
According to a press release posted on the university’s official website, almost the same amount of people found themselves in the hospital after drinking MillerCoors’ Steel Reserve. Following those two beers on the list were Colt 45, King Cobra and Bud Ice.
“Recent studies reveal that nearly a third of injury visits to Level 1 trauma centers were alcohol-related and frequently a result of heavy drinking,” David Jernigan, the director of Johns Hopkins’ Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, said.
The study involved 105 participants from the urban medical center at Johns Hopkins Hospital Emergency Department. Those who took part in the survey had been injured on either Friday or Saturday nights between April of 2010 and June of 2011.
The release stated, “The next step, according to study authors, would be to pursue this type of research be further explored in a larger sample of emergency department admissions for injury, across multiple cities and hospitals.”
The team involved in the study felt that policy changes could – and possibly should – be the result if findings remain consistent.
Noted Jernigan, “Understanding the relationship between alcohol brands and their connection to injury may help guide policymakers in considering taxation and physical availability of different types of alcohol given the harms associated with them.”
