TY - JOUR PY - 2010// TI - A population-based study on the prevalence and correlates of drinking and driving in Hong Kong JO - Accident analysis and prevention A1 - Kim, Joo-Heon A1 - Lee, Sangkeun A1 - Chan, K. W. A1 - Lau, Joseph A1 - Tsang, Adley A1 - Griffiths, Sian M. SP - 994 EP - 1002 VL - 42 IS - 4 N2 - To examine the prevalence and correlates of drinking and driving in Hong Kong, an anonymous, random telephone survey was conducted on 9860 Chinese adults (18-70 years of age) from April to June 2006. Trained interviewers administered a structured interview consisting of questions on socio-demographic information, drinking pattern, drink-driving, and motor vehicle accidents. The census age-standardized past-year prevalence of driving within 2h of drinking was 5.2% among males and 0.8% among females. The prevalence across age showed an inverted U-shaped trend for males peaking at 8.2% between 41 and 45 years. For females the prevalence was fairly stable between the ages of 20 and 55. The past-year prevalence of alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents was 0.1%, with the majority being in the 26-30 age group. For males who drank, the prevalence of drinking and driving was 5.0% among those without problem drinking, 14.8% among binge drinkers, 37.1% among alcohol abusers and 22.4% among the alcohol dependent. For females who drank, the corresponding figures were all lower at 1.2%, 6.9%, 12.1% and 12.5%, respectively. Higher socio-economic status, weekly drinking, binge drinking and alcohol abuse were independently associated with higher likelihood of drinking and driving in both genders. Among drinking drivers, having a job that required drinking was the only predictor of having had a motor vehicle accident. The elevated prevalence of drinking and driving among alcohol abusers, binge drinkers and the alcohol dependent may portend higher population-level rates of alcohol-related motor accidents in the future since the prevalence of problem drinking has previously been noted to be increasing rapidly in Hong Kong.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0001-4575 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2009.12.001 ID - ref1 ER -