Citation

Christie D, Gordon I, Robinson K, Santamaria J, O'Brien M. Med. J. Aust. 1987; 147(9): 427-8, 430.

Affiliation

University of Melbourne Department of Community Medicine, Carlton, VIC.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, Australian Medical Association, Publisher Australasian Medical Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3670192

Abstract

Four hundred and sixty-three men aged 18-25 years were referred to a counselling programme in 1975-1977, after their first conviction for an alcohol-related traffic offence. Records of the Victoria Police, and those of the Motor Registration Board, were searched for subsequent alcohol-related traffic offences up to February 1984. Those subjects who had left the State of Victoria or had died were identified, and a "survival" curve was constructed where survival implied freedom from reconviction for an alcohol-related traffic offence. By means of Cox's proportional hazards model, the rate ratios of a number of predictor variables of recidivism were calculated; those of significance were the number of drinks per week, social class, and a history of "family troubles with drinking". Reduction of alcohol consumption may be a more appropriate goal in programmes that are concerned with the counselling of young drinking-drivers than is attempted modification of the drinking-driving nexus.

Language: en