Citation

Xu XH, Dong H, Li L, Yang Z, Lin GZ, Ou CQ. BMC Public Health 2021; 21(1): 1885.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/s12889-021-11958-4

PMID

34663285

Abstract

BACKGROUND: China has introduced a series of stricter policies to criminalize drunk driving and increase penalties since May 2011. However, there is no previous study examining the time-varying impacts of drunk driving regulations on road traffic fatalities based on daily data.

METHODS: We collected 6536 individual data of road traffic deaths (RTDs) in Guangzhou from 2008 to 2018. The quasi-Poisson regression models with an inclusion of the intervention variable and the interaction of intervention variable and a function of time were used to quantify the time-varying effects of these regulations.

RESULTS: During the 11-year study period, the number of population and motor vehicles showed a steady upward trend. However, the population- and motor vehicles- standardized RTDs rose steadily before May 2011, the criminalizing drunk driving intervention was implemented and gradually declined after that. The new drunk driving intervention were associated with an average risk reduction of RTDs (ER = -9.01, 95% eCI: - 10.05% to - 7.62%) during the 7.7 years after May 2011. On average, 75.82 (95% eCI, 54.06 to 92.04) RTDs per 1 million population annually were prevented due to the drunk driving intervention.

CONCLUSION: These findings would provide important implications for the development of integrated intervention measures in China and other countries attempting to reduce traffic fatalities by stricter regulations on drunk driving.

Keywords: Ethanol impaired driving

Language: en

Keywords

China; Drunk driving regulations; Interrupted time-series analysis; Quasi-Poisson regression model; Road traffic deaths