The study found that the number of alcohol-related injuries presenting at hospital have soared by 138 per cent in the last 10 years with 59 per cent of those injuries reportedly being the result of domestic violence.

The research used emergency department surveillance data sourced from the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit between 2003 and 2012 and included 23 city, regional and rural hospitals.

Professor Kim Usher from the School of Health at the University of New England said the research revealed 38 per cent of alcohol-related injuries occur at home while 13 per cent occur on the street and 10 per cent at licensed premises.

Professor Usher says the results reflect a trend in the way alcohol is consumed by younger generations who prefer to drink at home to combat the rising cost of alcohol at licensed venues.

“It appears more people especially the young are drinking at home, because it is cheaper than going out.”

“An injury due to assault is 84 per cent more likely to happen in the home compared to other locations. Of all the alcohol-related injuries, the most frequent body region to sustain an injury was the head, neck or face,” she said.

“Hopefully the findings will give the government an incentive to put public health campaigns into action that discourage drinking to excess.”

Professor Usher also hopes that the findings will help emergency departments better prepare for at-home alcohol-related injuries.

“Knowing that these injuries occurred in the home, the emergency departments should be more able to handle these types of injuries,” she said.

The research is the first of its kind to examine alcohol-related injuries in the home, with most of the previous research related to alcohol-related injuries focusing on licensed venues.

The study, Patterns of “At-Home” Alcohol Related Injury Presentations to Emergency Departments, has been published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.