The relationship between alcohol consumption patterns and car, work, sports and home accidents for different age groups
Introduction
Research suggests that young people are particularly over-represented in alcohol-related crashes and fatalities (Abel and Zeidenberg, 1985, Williams and Wells, 1993, Holubowycz et al., 1994) even when blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels are controlled (Mayhew et al., 1986, Mercer, 1986, Zador, 1991). As pointed out in one study, risk factors may vary for different types of injuries (Macdonald et al., 1998). While a relationship between drinking patterns and other types of injury has been noted (Smith and Kraus, 1988, Treno et al., 1997, Cherpitel, 1993), this relationship has not been examined for different age groups. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between alcohol consumption patterns and car collisions, work, sports and home accidents across different categories of age.
Section snippets
Methods
A secondary analysis was conducted on data collected by Statistics Canada (1994) for the eighth cycle of the General Social Survey (GSS). A cross-sectional survey of the Canadian population was conducted which covered topics such as injuries, crime incidents and attitudes towards the criminal justice system. The sample was restricted to adults age 15 and older and stratified by province and geographic region, excluding residents of the Yukon and Northwest Territories and full-time residents of
Alcohol consumption
Indicators of alcohol consumption patterns were collapsed into the following categorical variables for the analyses: average number of drinks consumed in a week (non-drinkers, less than 14 drinks, 14 or more drinks); average number of drinks consumed per drinking occasion (non-drinkers, less than 5 drinks, 5 or more drinks); highest number of drinks consumed on one occasion in the previous year (non-drinkers, less than 5, 5–10, and 11 or more); and a frequency measure of drinking in the
Data Analysis
Chi-square tests were conducted for accident and non-accident groups with each of the four alcohol consumption variables. These analyses were conducted for different age groups to assess whether the patterns remained stable across age groups.
Results
A significant relationship was found between average number of drinks and the variable reflecting at least one accident in the previous 12 months (P<0.0001). Those who reported drinking 14 or more drinks per week were 1.6 times more likely than non-drinkers to have accidents. This overall pattern was observed for car collisions, work, and sports accidents. Interestingly, however, this pattern reversed itself entirely for accidents at home, with increased drinking associated with fewer
Discussion
A limitation of this study is that drinking patterns were examined rather than consumption prior to injuries. While the study of consumption patterns does not provide information about alcohol impairment in the incident, it is useful for identifying indirect associations between drinking patterns and injury risk (see Treno et al., 1997). A significant relationship was found between alcohol consumption and the likelihood of car, work and sports accidents for the youngest age groups but not for
Acknowledgements
Data from the eighth cycle of the General Social Survey (GSS) collected by Statistics Canada were employed in this study. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
References (13)
Factors affecting the drinking driver
Drug Alcohol Depend.
(1987)- et al.
Age, sex, and blood alcohol concentration of killed and injured drivers, riders, and passengers
Accid. Anal. Prev.
(1994) - et al.
Comparison of lifestyle and substance use factors related to accidental injuries at work, home and recreational events
Accid. Anal. Prev.
(1998) - et al.
Youth alcohol and relative risk of crash involvement
Accid. Anal. Prev.
(1986) - et al.
Age, alcohol and violent deaths: a postmortem study
J. Stud. Alcohol
(1985) Alcohol, injury, and risk-taking behavior: data from a national sample
Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res.
(1993)
Cited by (36)
Bar opening hours, alcohol consumption and workplace accidents
2018, Labour EconomicsCitation Excerpt :Regarding mortal workplace accidents, Spain was behind the average in the EU15 and almost tripled the number of accidents in which at least one person dies with respect to countries such as Sweden or the UK. Finally, even if there is a large body of literature that reports a strong positive correlation between alcohol consumption and workplace accidents (Van Charante et al., 1990; Zwerling et al., 1996; Wells, 1999 amongst others) causality has not yet been established. Our identification strategy is based on a policy that reduced bar opening hours from 6am to 2–3.30am in Spain.
An assessment of the effects of alcohol consumption and prevention policies on traffic fatality rates in the enlarged EU. Time for zero alcohol tolerance?
2017, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and BehaviourCitation Excerpt :First, factors that influence consumption patterns (systematic review in Hughes et al., 2011): geographical-cultural aspects (Bloomfield et al., 2003; Room et al., 2012), for example. Second, individual characteristics: gender (Mäkelä et al., 2006; Wilsnack, Vogeltanz, Wilsnack, & Harris, 2000); age (Engels & Knibbe, 2000; McCarthy, 2005; Watling & Armstrong, 2015; Wells & Macdonald, 1999); and beverage preferences (Dey, Gmel, Studer, Dermota, & Mohler-Kuo, 2013), for example. Third, effectiveness of public and police interventions (see Chang, Lin, Huang, & Chang, 2013; Cook, Bond, & Greenfield, 2014; Warner & Forward, 2016): minimum legal age for alcohol purchase or consumption (Loeb, 1987; Plunk, Cavazaos-Rehg, Bierut, & Grucza, 2013; Subbaraman & Kerr, 2013); prices and taxation of alcoholic beverages (Chaloupka, Grossman, & Saffer, 2002; Lhachimi et al., 2012), for example.
Prevalence of alcohol-impaired drivers based on random breath tests in a roadside survey in Catalonia (Spain)
2014, Accident Analysis and PreventionCitation Excerpt :Although some caution is required when age-group outcomes are analyzed, since the large variance estimates due to the disaggregation level (8 categories) lead to differences which are most of them not statistically significant, results seem to indicate some positive relationship between alcohol-impaired driving and age. This relationship is not surprising and does not contradict the fact that most of the previous studies based on data from alcohol breath tests performed on drivers involved in an accident show that young drivers are at the highest risk of crashing when they do drink and drive (Wells and Macdonald, 1999; Keall et al., 2004). The higher crash risk of young drunk drivers is frequently associated to their lack of driving experience.
Association between cannabis use and non-traffic injuries
2012, Accident Analysis and PreventionCitation Excerpt :In 2008, 23 million Europeans aged 15–64 years (6.8%) had used cannabis in the last year, with the highest prevalence reported among young people (16% in the 15–24 age group) (European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2010). The same as occurs for alcohol consumption, impairment related with cannabis use could be expected to be related to a higher risk of injuries (Macdonald et al., 2006; Wells and Macdonald, 1999). In experimental studies, cannabis produces dose-related impairment in reaction time, information processing, perceptual-motor coordination, motor performance, attention, and tracking behaviour (European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2008; Hall and Degenhardt, 2009; Ramaekers et al., 2004, 2006).
Analysis of the temporal properties in car accident time series
2008, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its ApplicationsLongitudinal examination of underage drinking and subsequent drinking and risky driving
2006, Journal of Safety Research