Identifying and validating alcohol diagnostics for injury-related trauma in South Africa: protocol for a mixed methods study
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background:
The burden of alcohol use among patients with trauma and the relative injury risks is not routinely measured in South Africa. Given the prominent burden of alcohol on hospital trauma departments, South Africa needs practical, cost-effective, and accurate alcohol diagnostic tools for testing, surveillance, and clinical management of patients with trauma.
Objective:
This study aims to validate alcohol diagnostics for injury-related trauma and assess its use for improving national health practice and policy.
Methods:
The Alcohol Diagnostic Validation for Injury-Related Trauma study will use mixed methods across 3 work packages. Five web-based focus group discussions will be conducted with 6 to 8 key stakeholders, each across 4 areas of expertise (clinical, academic, policy, and operational) to determine the type of alcohol information that will be useful for different stakeholders in the injury prevention and health care sectors. We will then conduct a small pilot study followed by a validation study of alcohol diagnostic tools (clinical assessment, breath analysis, and fingerprick blood) against enzyme immunoassay blood concentration analysis in a tertiary hospital trauma setting with 1000 patients. Finally, selected alcohol diagnostic tools will be tested in a district hospital setting with a further 1000 patients alongside community-based participatory research on the use of the selected tools.
Results:
Pilot data are being collected, and the protocol will be modified based on the results.
Conclusions:
Through this project, we hope to identify and validate the most appropriate methods of diagnosing alcohol-related injury and violence in a clinical setting. The findings from this study are likely to be highly relevant and could influence our primary beneficiaries—policy makers and senior health clinicians—to adopt new practices and policies around alcohol testing in injured patients. The findings will be disseminated to relevant national and provincial government departments, policy experts, and clinicians. Additionally, we will engage in media advocacy and with our stakeholders, including community representatives, work through several nonprofit partners to reach civil society organizations and share findings. In addition, we will publish findings in scientific journals.
The burden of alcohol use among patients with trauma and the relative injury risks is not routinely measured in South Africa. Given the prominent burden of alcohol on hospital trauma departments, South Africa needs practical, cost-effective, and accurate alcohol diagnostic tools for testing, surveillance, and clinical management of patients with trauma.
Objective:
This study aims to validate alcohol diagnostics for injury-related trauma and assess its use for improving national health practice and policy.
Methods:
The Alcohol Diagnostic Validation for Injury-Related Trauma study will use mixed methods across 3 work packages. Five web-based focus group discussions will be conducted with 6 to 8 key stakeholders, each across 4 areas of expertise (clinical, academic, policy, and operational) to determine the type of alcohol information that will be useful for different stakeholders in the injury prevention and health care sectors. We will then conduct a small pilot study followed by a validation study of alcohol diagnostic tools (clinical assessment, breath analysis, and fingerprick blood) against enzyme immunoassay blood concentration analysis in a tertiary hospital trauma setting with 1000 patients. Finally, selected alcohol diagnostic tools will be tested in a district hospital setting with a further 1000 patients alongside community-based participatory research on the use of the selected tools.
Results:
Pilot data are being collected, and the protocol will be modified based on the results.
Conclusions:
Through this project, we hope to identify and validate the most appropriate methods of diagnosing alcohol-related injury and violence in a clinical setting. The findings from this study are likely to be highly relevant and could influence our primary beneficiaries—policy makers and senior health clinicians—to adopt new practices and policies around alcohol testing in injured patients. The findings will be disseminated to relevant national and provincial government departments, policy experts, and clinicians. Additionally, we will engage in media advocacy and with our stakeholders, including community representatives, work through several nonprofit partners to reach civil society organizations and share findings. In addition, we will publish findings in scientific journals.
Date Issued
2024-03-11
Date Acceptance
2024-01-30
Citation
JMIR Research Protocols, 2024, 13
ISSN
1929-0748
Publisher
JMIR Publications
Journal / Book Title
JMIR Research Protocols
Volume
13
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
©Petal Petersen Williams, Megan Prinsloo, Margaret M Peden, Ian Neethling, Shibe Mhlongo, Sithombo Maqungo, Charles Parry, Richard Matzopoulos. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 11.03.2024. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38466974
PII: v13i1e52949
Subjects
accident
accidents
addiction
Africa
alcohol
alcohol diagnostics
alcohol misuse
CAPE-TOWN
clinical management
diagnostic
diagnostic tool
diagnostic tools
Health Care Sciences & Services
injuries
injury
injury prevention
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
mixed methods
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
risk
road traffic
Science & Technology
South Africa
surveillance
trauma
violence
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Canada
Article Number
e52949
Date Publish Online
2024-03-11