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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: To describe self-reported high alcohol use at each of the three licensing stages of graduated driver licensing and its relationship to drink-driving behaviours, intentional risky driving, aggressive driving, alcohol traffic offences, non-alcohol traffic offences, and traffic crashes.
METHODS: The New Zealand Drivers Study (NZDS) is a multistage, prospective cohort study of newly licensed drivers interviewed at all three stages of the graduated driver licensing system: learner (baseline), restricted (intermediate) and full licence. At each stage alcohol use was self-reported using the AUDIT-C, with high alcohol use defined as a score of ≥4 for males and ≥3 for females. Socio-demographic and personality data were obtained at the baseline interview. Alcohol-related, intentional risky, and aggressive driving behaviours were self-reported following each licence stage. Traffic crashes and offences were identified from Police records. Crashes were also self-reported.
RESULTS: 26% (n = 397) reported no high alcohol use, 22% at one licence stage, 30% at two stages, and 22% at three stages. Poisson regression results (unadjusted and adjusted) showed the number of stages where high alcohol use was reported was significantly associated with each of the outcomes. For most outcomes, and especially the alcohol-involved outcomes, the relative risk increased with the number of stages of high alcohol use.
CONCLUSIONS: We found that high alcohol use was common among young newly licensed drivers and those who repeatedly reported high alcohol use were at a significantly higher risk of unsafe driving behaviours. Recently introduced zero BAC should help to address this problem, but other strategies are required to target persistent offenders.
Language: en |