Antecedence to Injury | Illumination

Antecedence to Injury. Story by Alan Bavley.

One thing Vinson found still puzzles him: There was no association between alcohol abuse or dependence and the risk of injury. "Not alcoholism, but the number of drinks is the risk factor for injury," he says. "I still can't get my mind around that."

Cheryl Cherpitel, associate director of the National Alcohol Research Center in Berkeley, Calif., collaborated with Vinson on his alcohol and injury research. She described Vinson's methodology as ground-breaking in the field of alcohol studies.

"Dan was the first to use this methodology in the substance use area, and his studies were seminal in advancing the area of alcohol and injury research in emergency department populations," Cherpitel says.

Vinson's findings already have prompted other researchers to examine the connection between drinking and injury. In Australia, researchers at the University of Queensland replicated Vinson's study and came up with similar results. People who drank alcohol were up to four times more likely than non-drinkers to suffer physical injuries. The Australian researchers also found that people who sustained serious injuries were more likely to have been drinking beer and to have done their imbibing at a bar or tavern.

Vinson's alcohol study also yielded an unexpected bonus: data linking anger to injury. When Vinson's research team was interviewing people for the alcohol study, they asked a series of questions to help people remember what they'd been doing the day before: Where were they? What had they been up to? Were they feeling irritated, angry or hostile? If so, how intensely?

"When we plugged in everything I had measures for, there was this connection between anger and injury," Vinson says. "And the more angry someone was, the higher the risk."

Someone who reported being "quite a bit angry" had nearly twice the risk of injury as someone who had been in a good mood. Someone who was "extremely angry" had seven times the risk.

Vinson's findings were published last fall in an Annals of Family Medicine article co-written with MU medical student Vineesha Arelli. The results could be interpreted in several ways, Vinson says. Doing something that makes you angry may lead to an injury, he suggests. Engaging in rough, competitive sports, for example. Or a night out at a rowdy bar. Or an argument with a mother-in-law. ("I loved my mother-in-law. She was wonderful," Vinson says in a quick aside.)

Published by the Office of Research.