A 10-year Retrospective Analysis of Alcohol-related Road Crashes in the Philippines

Background. Alcohol intoxication is one of the major risk factors contributing to fatal and injurious road crashes in the Philippines. Although road safety programs have been implemented to attempt to reduce alcohol-related road crashes, the rate of alcohol-related road crashes is still a major public health burden in the country.

Objective. To analyze the trend of alcohol-related road crashes in the Philippines, and to determine its effect on patient injuries and fatalities. 

Methods. The 10-year database (2010 to 2020) on transport/vehicular crashes with alcohol intoxication (N = 35252) from the Online National Electronic Injury Surveillance System of the Department of Health was analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. 

Results. A total of 35,252 cases of alcohol-related road crashes was recorded between 2010 to 2020 in the Online National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (ONEISS) of the Department of Health. An increasing trend of alcoholrelated road crashes was observed until 2019 and declined by 2020. Alcohol-related road crashes significantly increased the odds of patient death (OR = 2.02, p <0.0001). Meanwhile, Alcohol-related road crash was significantly associated with increased odds of sustaining amputation (OR = 19.04, p <0.0001), open wound (OR = 2.16, p <0.0001), open fracture (OR = 1.45, p <0.0001), multiple injury (OR = 2.23, <0.0001), among others. 

Conclusion. The findings confirm that alcohol-impaired driving remains a critical contributor to road crash fatalities and severe injuries in the Philippines. Strengthened enforcement, surveillance, and evidence-based prevention strategies are necessary to reduce alcohol-related road crash morbidity and mortality.