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Results for “Driving Under the Influence”

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PubMed2000

Alcohol use in relation to driving records among injured bicyclists.

To prevent alcohol-related occupational mishaps, employers often conduct background checks on prospective employees for history of driving while intoxicated (DWI) and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) to screen out candidates with drinking problems. Few studies, however, have examined the pervasive nature of drinking behavior across activity domains. Based on trauma registry data, we constructed a historical cohort of 120 Maryland residents ages 18 years or older who were injured while riding a bicycle between 1990 and 1997. Driving records for the 120 bicyclists for the 3 years between May 6, 1995 and May 5, 1998 were obtained from the state motor vehicle administration and were analyzed in relation to BAC-positive status at the time of injury. Bicyclists with positive BACs at the time of admission to the trauma center were significantly more likely than those with negative BACs to have a record of license suspension/revocation (52% vs 14%, P < 0.01) and to have DWI/DUI convictions (30% vs 3%, P < 0.01). Despite the modest sample size, this study provides compelling evidence of the pervasive nature of risky drinking between bicycling and driving activities.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Stages of change and self-efficacy for controlling drinking and driving: a psychometric analysis.

Indicators of self-efficacy and motivation to change (stage of change) with regard to drinking and to drinking and driving were examined in a sample of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) offenders in a court-mandated intervention program. Self-administered questionnaires that contained pertinent measures were completed by 210 consenting offenders (34 of whom were female) during the intervention program. A factor analysis of efficacy and stages of change items showed distinct factors for the respective constructs; however, drinking and drinking-and-driving items of the same type (e.g., efficacy or stages of change) tended to codefine common factors, and the factor pattern suggested that motivations and efficacy for changing drinking behavior are critical for avoiding the drinking-and-driving sequence. Most participants were classified into the action stage in both drinking and drinking-and-driving domains. In regression analysis, contemplation of action and self-efficacy measures pertaining to drinking and driving predicted prior crashes and arrests; however, after accounting for recent alcohol problems, action items pertaining to drinking and driving were the best predictors of recent drinking-and-driving incidents.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Parent-based intervention strategies to reduce adolescent alcohol-impaired driving.

OBJECTIVE: To review selected issues to consider when designing parent-based interventions for reducing alcohol-impaired driving in adolescent populations and to present a theoretical framework for analyzing such behavior. METHOD: The existing literature on alcohol-impaired driving and parent influences is considered based on a literature review of contemporary social science journals. Data also are presented from a survey of junior and senior high school students in the Capitol District of New York. CONCLUSIONS: Parent-based approaches are promising and represent an additional tool in the armament of strategies to reduce alcohol-impaired driving. Programs should focus on variables that are amenable to change (cognitions and attitudes), conduct preliminary studies to isolate relevant attitudes and cognitions for the target population of interest, formulate strategies that recognize the numerous demands in a parent's life and take into account existing theoretical frameworks on alcohol-impaired driving in adolescents.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Maintenance therapy with synthetic opioids and driving aptitude.

AIMS: To assess the influence of methadone and buprenorphine maintenance treatment on the driving aptitude of opioid-dependent patients. DESIGN: Prospective, open label, outpatient maintenance, single-blind (investigator) study. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Thirty opioid-dependent patients maintained on either methadone or buprenorphine were recruited from the drug-addiction outpatient clinic in Vienna. MEASUREMENTS: The traffic-relevant performance dimensions of the participants were assessed 22 h after receiving synthetic opioid maintenance therapy, by a series of seven tests constituting the Act & React Test System (ART) 2020 Standard test battery, developed by the Austrian Road Safety Board (ARSB). To test for additional consumption of illicit substances, blood and urine samples were taken at the beginning of the tests. FINDINGS: The patient group only differed from control subjects in two of the ART 2020 Standard tests. During a task to test the subject's attention under monotonous circumstances (Q1 test), patients had a significantly greater number of reactions (p = 0.027) and a significantly higher percentage of incorrect reactions than control subjects. When driving in a dynamic environment (DR2 test) patients had a significantly longer mean decision time (p = 0.029) and mean reaction time (p = 0.009) compared with control subjects. Interestingly, when separated into treatment groups, the mean decision and reaction times of buprenorphine-maintained patients in the DR2 test did not differ from controls, whereas patients maintained on methadone showed significantly prolonged mean decision (p = 0.009) and reaction times (p = 0.004). In this same test, patients who had consumed additional illicit drugs had a longer mean reaction time compared with control subjects (p = 0.036). CONCLUSION: The synthetic opioid-maintained subjects investigated in the current study did not differ significantly in comparison to healthy controls in the majority of the ART 2020 Standard tests.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Pattern of accidents and injuries involving three-wheelers.

OBJECTIVE: To study the pattern of injuries and some causative factors of three-wheeler related accidents. DESIGN: Prospective descriptive study. SETTING: Accident unit, Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila. METHODS: One hundred patients admitted to Colombo South Teaching Hospital with three-wheeler related accidents were interviewed, examined within 24 hours of admission and followed up by using a standard questionnaire. Detailed descriptions of the accident and the types of injuries were recorded. RESULTS: 54 accidents took place during daytime 07.00 h to 19.00 h) and the passengers were the commonest victims (40%). Soft tissue injury was the commonest injury observed (75%). The second commonest type of injury was long bone fractures (21%). Toppling due to a sudden turn of the vehicle accounted for 30% of accidents. Of 28 drivers in the study group, 25 admitted breaking the handle-lock to increase the vehicle's turning angle. Toppling due to a sudden turn was identified as the cause of the accident in all those who had interfered with the handle-lock. At the time of the accident, 89% of the drivers and 28.1% of pedestrians were under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol was related to 67.4% of the night accidents. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol consumption was recognised as a major contributory factor, in particular for night accidents. A strong association was observed between mechanical alteration of the vehicle's handle-lock and the risk of accident. Introduction of legislation to prohibit handle-lock alteration and strict implementation of the law regarding driving under the influence of alcohol would help to reduce three-wheeler related accidents.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed1978

Drug abuse and suicide.

This paper examines the relationship between drug abuse and suicide. It attempts to assess the extent of suicidal thoughts or behaviors among a group of drug abusers. The research examines variables related to self-destructive or self-endangering behaviors, such as accidental overdoses, arrests for driving under the influence, and auto accidents in which the subject was the driver. These data were examined in relation to reports of suicidal thoughts and actual suicide attempts. The results indicate a suicide attempt rate at least 12 times greater than expected for the general population. The results also indicate significant correlations between suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts and nonsuicidal overdoses, and arrests for driving under the influece of drugs or alcohol and nonsuicidal overdoses. The implications of these results along with the role of depression as discussed.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed1975

Kinetics of the glomerular ultrafiltration in the rat kidney. A theoretical study.

The glomerular filtration process was evaluated theoretically from micropuncture data obtained from Sprague-Dawley rats. The hydrostatic pressures in the glomerular capillaries and Bowman's space minus the oncotic pressure in systemic plasma gave the net driving force at the proximal end of the glomerular capillary. From the single nephron filtration fraction the mean net driving force over the glomerular membrane was calculated to be 20 mm Hg during normotension, decreasing to 12 mm Hg during a perfusion pressure of 80 mm Hg. The hydraulic permeability for one glomerulus was 0.7-0.8 nl/min-100 g b.wt. mmHg. The pressures at the distal end of the glomerular capillaries were 13 and 6 mm Hg under the above two conditions, indicating non-equilibrium of the filtration process at the end of the glomerular capillary. It was shown that the glomerular filtration rate is mainly influenced by the driving pressures. During hypotension an increased plasma flow dependency was evident. Brenner et al. found a filtration equilibrium and a plasma flow dependent glomerular filtration rate in a mutant Wistar rat strain. The discrepancy between their results and ours is due to the low glomerular plasma flow and hydrostatic pressures in the Wistar rats. It is concluded from our results that both pre- and postglomerular resistances may influence the glomerular filtration rate and glomerular plasma flow independently.

Animals↗

PubMed2002

Rotation number, stochastic resonance, and synchronization of coupled systems without periodic driving.

This article investigates the influence of noise in a two-dimensional square array of coupled nonlinear oscillators without periodic driving. Array enhanced stochastic resonance under global as well as local noise perturbation is shown to exist under a crucial condition: the value of the rotation number of the deterministic system being zero. Meanwhile, the stochastic synchronization phenomenon is displayed in a wide range of noise intensity whether noise is added globally or locally. Furthermore, for every oscillator, the peak frequency is shown to agree with the rotation number much better than in the uncoupled system.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Improved procedure for the analysis of gamma-hydroxybutyrate and ethylene glycol in whole blood.

The modification of a procedure originally developed for the analysis of ethylene glycol (EG) in serum was also found to permit the simultaneous analysis of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) in whole blood. The primary feature of the EG procedure was that it employed a water scavenger, 2,2-dimethoxypropane, which reacted with water to produce volatile methanol. Water scavenging is a technique that could be adapted for the analysis of drugs such as GHB as their respective di-t-butyldimethylsilyl derivatives. A close structural analogue of GHB, 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutyric acid, was successfully employed as the internal standard for both EG and GHB. The advantages of the modified procedure are that it is very quick and easy to perform and produces remarkably clean extracts for GHB, especially when compared to other liquid-liquid techniques. We have successfully applied this technique for the analysis of GHB and EG in several postmortem and driving-under-the-influence cases. There is an apparently wide variability between levels of GHB that can be associated with impairment versus those levels that can be associated with death.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Equilibrium Shapes of Solid Particles on Elastically Mismatched Substrates.

Small particles or islands bonded to a substrate can be profoundly influenced by both interfacial and elastic driving forces that tend to have opposing influences on the apparent wetting behavior. The superposition of these two driving forces can therefore lead to a rich set of particle properties, most notably their equilibrium shapes. Here we present a variational analysis leading directly to an Euler-Lagrange equation that can be solved to yield the equilibrium shapes of partially wetting particles as a function of their size, interface energy densities, and elastic interaction with a rigid substrate. The solutions are used to gain insight into the variables that most significantly influence the equilibrium morphology, and to derive the approximate driving force for surface area reduction by coarsening among a dispersion of unequally sized particles. The relatively simple analytical model can also form a foundation upon which more realistic numerical simulations may be built and compared. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1995

Foot performance of right- and left-handers: a question of environmental influence.

Prior research has shown that right-handed adults perform better on a speed-tapping task with the right hand and right foot, while left-handers execute more rapidly with the left hand and right foot. Speculation is that environmental influence, most likely driving experience, may account for the right-foot bias. To examine this hypothesis further, 48 young right- and left-handed children were tested on a similar protocol. Analyses indicated no significant differences in foot performance within hand-preference groups. Since these findings do not complement reports for adults, factors such as experience or maturation might contribute to the difference. Were patterns similar, the effect of environmental influence would be assumed to be small. However, much more evidence is needed before an adequate explanation can be developed. The issue of possible environmental influence is discussed from various theoretical perspectives.

Child↗

PubMed1998

Multivariate genetic analysis of the causes of temperance board registrations. In all Swedish male-male [correction of male-female] twin pairs born 1926-1949.

BACKGROUND: The Temperance Boards in Sweden registered individuals for three reasons: public drunkenness, driving under the influence of alcohol and committing a crime in connection with alcohol. We wanted to ascertain whether these three forms of alcohol-related problems result from similar or different genetic and environmental risk factors. METHOD: We conducted a trivariate twin analysis of these three causes of registration in all male-male [corrected] twin pairs of known zygosity born in Sweden, 1926-1949 (n = 5177 twin pairs). RESULTS: Prevalences of registration for public drunkenness, drink-driving and alcohol-related crime were, respectively, 9.0, 3.6 and 4.0%. The best-fitting model had one general genetic and one general familial-environmental factor with specific genetic risk factors for drink-driving and specific familial-environmental risk factors for alcohol-related crime. CONCLUSIONS: The three causes for alcohol registration in Sweden largely reflect the same genetic and environmental risk factors. Estimated heritabilities were similar for the three forms of registration. However, specific genetic risk factors exist for drink-driving and specific familial-environmental risk factors for alcohol-related crime. Genetic factors are somewhat less important and familial-environmental factors more important for public drunkenness than for drink-driving and alcohol related crime.

Alcoholic Intoxication↗

PubMed1996

Drinking by police officers, general drivers and late-night drivers.

OBJECTIVE: This study compares police officers' reported alcohol use with similar reports from age- and gender-matched samples from the general driving population (GDP) and drivers recruited at high-risk hours who are most likely to drink and drive (roadside drivers). METHOD: Data were derived from interviews with 239 police officers who spent at least 5% of their time on alcohol or traffic enforcement; 243 subjects from the GDP, selected by random-digit dialing; and 249 drivers recruited at roadside on Friday and Saturday nights between 10:00 PM and 3:00 AM. RESULTS: Officers report drinking less frequently and in smaller quantities than either of the driver samples. Differences between police and general drivers are modest: e.g., usual frequency of drinking (1 to < 3 vs 3 or 4 times/month; p < or = .001) and number of days/average month with > or = 2 drinks/day (mean = 2.5 [+/- 3.4] vs 4.9 [+/- 6.5]; p < or = .001). There are greater differences between police officers and roadside drivers: e.g., 14.2% and 2.4%, respectively, abstain (vs 15.6% of general drivers; police vs general drivers; NS; police and general drivers vs roadside drivers, p < or = .001). CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that officers' drinking differs significantly from that of drivers most likely to be driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). If this is so, police training programs pertaining to DUI and other alcohol-related offenses should pay explicit attention to the effects of alcohol and not assume that all officers have experienced them.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Ethyl glucuronide concentration in serum of human volunteers, teetotalers, and suspected drinking drivers.

The kinetic profile of ethanol and ethyl glucuronide (EtG) in serum was investigated in three subject groups: 1) Healthy, moderately drinking volunteers (daily intake less than 30 g ethanol) who ingested a single dose of ethanol. In this group the maximum of serum ethyl glucuronide concentration (SEtGC) and of serum ethanol concentration (SEC) did not exceed 3.7 mg/L and 1.5 g/L respectively. EtG peaked 2 to 3.5 h later than ethanol. EtG was eliminated with a terminal half-life of 2 to 3 h. EtG decreased slower than ethanol--the metabolite could still be determined in serum up to 8 h after complete ethanol elimination. 2) In serum samples of teetotalers neither ethanol nor EtG could be found. 3) In 37 of 50 serum samples of drivers suspected of driving under the influence of ethanol, SEtGC was found between the limit of detection (0.1 mg/L) and 20 mg/L. If the SEC is less than 1 g/L and the SEtGC is significantly higher than 5 mg/L, we assume alcohol misuse.

Adult↗

PubMed1976

Long-term lithium treatment: effect on simulated driving and other psychological tests.

The effect of lithium administered for six months on simulated car driving and other psychological tests was studied in patients with Menière's disease. The dose of lithium was adjusted every two weeks to maintain the serum level between 0.7 and 1.0 mmol/1. The trial was double-blind and cross-over in type, the effect of lithium being compared with a placebo. The subjects were within the normal range of Beck's depression scale and Marke-Nyman's temperament scale. Lithium was found neither to influence the simulated driving nor to affect the scores in the two rating scales. The only specific complaints observed during lithium treatment were tremor and increased thirst.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Drinking and driving among high-risk young Mexican-American men.

Determinants of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) were explored among a sample of relatively young Mexican-American males with limited income and education, high levels of alcohol consumption, and regular vehicle use. Data were collected using questionnaires (N=104) and focus groups (N=27), including a focus group with wives and girlfriends (N=4). Four mechanisms that may contribute to the high rate of DUI behavior in this population were identified: (1) a subculture of permissiveness toward drinking and driving for men, (2) heavy drinking, promoted by machismo and a propensity to measure masculinity with alcohol intake, (3) inadequate knowledge of DUI statutes and inadequate understanding of the relationships between BAC, impairment, and crash risk, and (4) for undocumented drivers, lack of accountability in case of an alcohol-related incident.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2002

Tractor-driving hours and their relation to self-reported low-back and hip symptoms.

Tractor driving might be one causal risk factor in the incidence of low-back and hip symptoms among farmers. Information on the annual exposure to tractor driving and its distribution among different work operations is scarce. The purpose of this study was to quantify the total and the annual time driving tractors among Swedish farmers and its distribution into different work operations, and to investigate the risk of low-back and hip symptoms in relation to tractor driving within different work operations. The data were collected from a questionnaire study sent to all farms with acreage more than 10 ha in a county in Sweden. Farmers having farming and/or forestry as their main occupation in 1995 were included in the analysis. The annual tractor-driving time and the percentage distribution within different work operations were calculated for females, males, the total group and four production groups. The risk calculations for low-back and hip symptoms from the variables related to tractor driving were performed on the total group. The results showed that the mean annual tractor-driving time was 472 h. Ploughing was the single most time-consuming work operation but it had no influence on the risk for low-back or hip pain. The results showed that some of the variables investigated related to tractor driving influenced the risk for low-back and hip symptoms.

Agricultural Workers' Diseases↗

PubMed2007

Neurocognitive characteristics of DUI recidivists.

Individuals who drive under the influence (DUI) of alcohol may be at greater risk for neurocognitive impairment because of their exposure to multiple sources of neurological risk. This could contribute to the persistence of DUI behaviour and influence the effectiveness of remedial interventions. The objectives of this study were to clarify the neurocognitive characteristics of DUI recidivists and the nature of potential impairments, and to explore relationships between these characteristics and the frequency of past DUI convictions. One hundred male recidivists were evaluated for visuospatial constructional abilities and visual memory, verbal fluency, attention skills, cognitive flexibility, spatial planning, and verbal and movement inhibition. Results indicated that a majority of recidivists showed signs of neurocognitive impairment on several dimensions. Impairment was most marked on visuospatial constructional abilities and visual memory. In contrast to previous studies, no participants were found to have impulse control problems. Measures of memory and cognitive efficiency were significantly associated with the frequency of past convictions. Finally, exploratory analyses of two potential sources of impairment, alcohol exposure and head trauma, suggested the role of excessive alcohol use as the most obvious associated factor. Overall, the findings indicate that neurocognitive impairments are a common feature in recidivists and may contribute to DUI persistence. Development of a DUI-specific neurocognitive assessment and greater understanding of how neurocognitive status influences DUI risk could lead to remediation strategies better adapted to the individual characteristics of recidivists.

Adult↗