(Press-News.org) PISCATAWAY, NJ – Underage female drinkers have been at a growing risk of fatal car crashes in recent years -- so much that they've caught up with their male counterparts, according to a study in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
Back in 1996, the U.S. had a gender split when it came to underage drinkers' odds of being involved in a fatal car crash: at any given blood-alcohol level, young men had a higher risk of a fatal crash than young women did.
But by 2007, the new study found, that gender gap had closed.
The exact reasons are not clear. But it's possible that young women are taking greater risks on the road.
"Young women who drink and drive may be behaving more like young men who drink and drive," says lead researcher Robert B. Voas, Ph.D., of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Calverton, Maryland.
The total number of young men involved in fatal alcohol-related wrecks is still greater because men drink more. But at a given blood-alcohol level, Voas says, young women now appear to have the same risk of a fatal crash as their male peers do.
The findings are based on information from a government reporting system on fatal traffic accidents nationwide. The researchers compared blood-alcohol information from nearly 6,900 fatal crashes in 2006 with information from about 6,800 U.S. drivers who were part of the 2007 U.S. National Roadside Survey.
Overall, the risk of being killed or at least involved in a fatal crash rose as drivers' blood alcohol levels climbed -- whatever their age.
Among underage drinkers (16- to 20-year-olds), having a blood-alcohol level of .02% to .049% translated into a nearly threefold greater risk of being involved in a fatal crash, relative to sober drivers the same age. And their odds of dying in a single-vehicle crash were almost fourfold higher.
What was remarkable, Voas and his colleagues say, was that by 2007, underage men and women had similar risks at each given blood-alcohol level. That's in contrast to findings from a decade earlier -- when underage men were at about a twofold greater risk than young women with the same blood-alcohol level.
The findings, Voas says, underscore the need for drunk-driving prevention education in school, for both boys and girls.
But the study also turned up another concerning pattern, notes study co-author Eduardo Romano, Ph.D.: sober male drivers ages 16 showed a doubling in the risk of a fatal car crash between 1996 and 2007.
Again, it's not clear why, Romano says. "But we speculate that it may have a lot to do with distraction," he says. "Sober kids are more at risk, and we think it may be related to texting and the other new technologies they are using so much."
If so, the researchers say, that points to a need not only for drunk-driving prevention but also efforts to curb "distracted driving."
###
Voas, R. B., Torres, P., Romano, E., & Lacey, J. H. (May 2012). Alcohol-related risk of driver fatalities: An update using 2007 data. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 73(3), 341.
Available at: http://www.jsad.com/jsad/link/73/341
To arrange an interview with Eduardo Romano, Ph.D., please contact Alexis Lumpkins at 301-755-2439 or alumpkins@pire.org.
The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (http://www.jsad.com) is published by the Center
of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. It is the oldest
substance-abuse journal published in the United States.
Allegations of widespread, sustained torture and other human rights violations by the Government of Sudan and Janjaweed forces against non-Arabic-speaking civilians are corroborated in a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine. In the study medical forensic experts reviewed the medical records of patients seen at a clinic in Darfur.
The authors, co-led by Alexander Tsai based at Harvard University and Mohammed Eisa based at Physicians for Human Rights, both in Cambridge, USA, conclude: "The widespread, organized, and sustained pattern of attacks documented in our ...
A study in this week's PLoS Medicine suggests that increasing height and, among women who have never taken menopausal hormone therapy, increased body mass index are risk factors for developing ovarian cancer.
These findings are important as in high income countries, the average height and average body mass index of women have increased by about 1 cm and 1 kg/m2 respectively per decade. These findings suggest that if all other factors that affect ovarian cancer risk had remained constant, the increases in height and weight among women would have resulted in ovarian cancer ...
In this week's PLoS Medicine, Peter Bloland and colleagues from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lay out the agency's priorities for health systems strengthening efforts. To guide its support of public health in low- and middle-income countries around the world, the CDC proposes to focus its investments on strengthening six key public health functions that would contribute the most towards health systems strengthening efforts as a whole and have the greatest impact on improving the public's health. These include ensuring the availability of critical ...
CHICAGO, IL (April 3, 2012)––The hormone estrogen may help promote lung cancer— including compounding the effects of tobacco smoke on the disease—pointing towards potential new therapies that target the hormone metabolism, according to new research presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012 on Tuesday, April 3 by scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.
"This research provides the link between estrogen and tobacco smoke," says study author Jing Peng, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate in the lab of Margie L. Clapper, Ph.D., also a co-author on the paper.
The ...
The world's first fiberglass working boat, Polaris, was built by SHING SHENG FA BOAT BUILDING CO., LTD. (SSF), one of the boat builders who's been manufacturing and customizing boats for more than 41 years. SSF is recognized as a pioneer in designing and manufacturing workboats and vessels. Their workboats are designed specifically to achieve various challenges in order to present the best. SSF has been building workboats including fishery trials, oceanographic survey ships, oil spill prevent boats, patrol working boats, river working boats, etc. And their strong working ...
CHICAGO, IL (April 3, 2012)––Scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia have come one step closer to developing the first treatment to target a key pathway in lymphoma. The new findings will be announced at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012 on Tuesday, April 3.
"It's an exciting time to be involved in lymphoma treatment and research," says study author Mitchell Smith, M.D., Ph.D., director of Lymphoma Service at Fox Chase. "There's a new understanding of the disease, and new drugs to treat it. I am optimistic that over the next couple of years treatments will continue ...
CHICAGO – The addition of a screening ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to annual mammography in women with an increased risk of breast cancer and dense breast tissue resulted in a higher rate of detection of incident breast cancers, according to a study in the April 4 issue of JAMA.
"Annual ultrasound screening may detect small, node-negative breast cancers that are not seen on mammography. Magnetic resonance imaging may reveal additional breast cancers missed by both mammography and ultrasound screening," according to background information in the article. ...
CHICAGO – Although data indicate that between 2003-2009 there was a substantial decline in the U.S. in hospitalizations for pneumonia and inpatient deaths, analysis suggests that trends in documentation and diagnostic coding, rather than improvements in actual outcomes, may explain much of the observed changes, according to a study in the April 4 issue of JAMA.
Pneumonia is a leading cause of illness and death among U.S. adults, resulting in more than 1 million annual hospital admissions and accounting for more than $10.5 billion in aggregate costs. "Given its public ...
CHICAGO – Adding the drug cetuximab to a regimen of drugs used for the treatment of patients following surgery for stage III colon cancer did not result in improved disease-free survival, according to a study in the April 4 issue of JAMA.
Patients who have surgery for removal of stage III colon cancer have a 50 percent chance of cure. Multiple trials have established the benefit of chemotherapy after surgery in reducing the recurrence risk. "Specifically, [the drugs] leucovorin, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX or slightly different method, FLOX) provides significant ...
CHICAGO – In an analysis of a cohort that included nearly one million patients who had visited an ophthalmologist, patients who were taking oral fluoroquinolones had a higher risk of developing a retinal detachment, a serious eye condition, compared with nonusers, although the absolute risk was small, according to a study in the April 4 issue of JAMA.
"Fluoroquinolones are one of the most commonly prescribed classes of antibiotics. Their broad-spectrum antibacterial coverage and high-tissue distribution provide potency for a wide variety of community-acquired infections," ...
