Alcohol and driving—How bad is the combination? A meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective The objective of this study was to summarize existing knowledge on the association between driving under the influence of alcohol and road safety outcomes and to assess factors that may explain why these estimates vary.

Methods Based on studies of the association between blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels and crashes, we used multilevel metaregression to calculate summary effects of BAC level and analyze potential moderators of the association.

Results Based on 60 studies and 393 effect estimates, we found that BAC level, outcome severity, use of hospital data, and geographical region contributed to heterogeneity in results.

Conclusion The effect of BAC on crash and injury risk and culpability is stronger at higher BAC levels and for more serious outcomes. The relationship between BAC level and outcome is approximately exponential. The relationship is stronger in studies from Nordic countries than in studies from other countries, possibly because of the relatively low level of drunk driving in these countries. Studies based on hospital data and studies using non-crash-involved control groups find smaller effects on average.