Citation

Watling H, Armstrong KA. Accid. Anal. Prev. 2017; 101: 154-159.

Affiliation

Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland(CARRS-Q), 130 Victoria Park Road, QLD 4059, Australia. Electronic address: ka.armstrong@qut.edu.au.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.aap.2017.02.008

PMID

28242575

Abstract

A substantial and sustained increase in the proportion of drink drivers that is female is observed in many parts of the motorised world. Given this trend, a better understanding of the factors that influence drink driving among women is needed. The current study investigated drink driving among middle-aged women, a relatively under-researched group of female drink drivers. A total of 781 women (age; M=51.36, SD=4.29years) completed a cross-sectional survey measuring a number of alcohol beliefs and drink driving. Among the included alcohol beliefs, viewing alcohol as a form of social enhancement as well as higher perceived heavy episodic drinking among same-aged women and greater acceptability toward this consumption pattern significantly increased the likelihood of self-reported drink driving. However, after adjusting for harmful consumption patterns, only alcohol as form of social enhancement remained significant. These results indicate that middle-aged women who engage in harmful alcohol consumption are more likely to drink drive, but also that the social aspect of drinking is a risk factor. Targeting both harmful consumption patterns as well as alcohol beliefs that are held by middle-aged women may reduce the incidence of drink driving in this group.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Alcohol beliefs; Drink driving; Harmful alcohol consumption; Middle-age; Women