TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2013//
TI  - Drink driving in Hong Kong: The competing effects of random breath testing and alcohol tax reductions
JO  - Addiction
A1  - Kim, Joo-Heon
A1  - Wong, Alvin
A1  - Goggins, William B.
A1  - Lau, Joseph
A1  - Griffiths, Sian M.
SP  - 1217
EP  - 1228
VL  - 108
IS  - 7
N2  - AIMS: To investigate the competing effects of increased anti-drink driving legislation and the recent elimination of excise taxes on wine and beer. DESIGN: Serial cross-sectional telephone surveys were conducted in 2006 (n=9860) and 2011 (n=4800). SETTING: Hong Kong, China. PARTICIPANTS: Chinese adults (>18 years of age). MEASUREMENTS: Respondents were asked about their drinking patterns, past-year experience of driving within 2 hours of drinking, drinking-related attitudes and reported deterrents to drink driving. FINDINGS: Following the legislative changes, the age-standardized past-year prevalence of drink driving significantly decreased from 5.2% to 2.8% (p<0.001) among all males, from 9.0% to 4.4% (p<0.001) among male past-year drinkers, and from 13.7% to 8.5% (p<0.01) among male weekly drinkers. The past-year prevalence of drink driving in 2011 among all females (0.08%), female past-year drinkers (1.6%), male binge drinkers (12.5%), female weekly drinkers (4.7%) and female binge drinkers (7.9%) were not significantly different from 2006. Drink driving was independently associated with business sector employment (OR=2.47), past-month binge drinking (OR=6.08), and beliefs in the benefits of drinking to one's well-being (OR=2.62) among males and past-month binge drinking (OR=5.57), belief in the social benefits of drinking (OR=5.66) and being unmarried (OR=3.00) in females (p<0.05). The most commonly reported drink driving deterrents were concerns about random breath tests (93%) and the potential legal consequences of conviction (93.2-98.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Despite greater alcohol consumption in Hong Kong, the current anti-drink driving strategy appears to reduce drink driving in males and prevent increased levels among females. Binge drinkers, however, remain a high-risk group that should be continually monitored.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0965-2140
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/add.12116
ID  - ref1
ER  -