One in Five Motorists Who Use Alcohol Drive Intoxicated

Approximately one in every five drivers who use alcohol, operate a vehicle under the influence.

This was one of the findings of a study, titled, ‘A Secondary Analysis of Alcohol Use and Driving While Intoxicated in Jamaica’. The study, which won the award for the Most Impactful Oral Presentation at the 13th Annual National Health Research Conference in November 2022 was conducted by Consultant Psychiatrist at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), Dr. Kunal Lalwani.

Speaking at a JIS Think Tank on Tuesday (March 7), Dr. Lalwani explained that the research was an examination of the National Drug Prevalence Survey of 2016.

That survey, Dr. Lalwani noted, “represents the largest population sample or dataset in Jamaica, and that dataset really dealt with the use and patterns of substances and looked at some of the implications of using drugs”. He added that the survey sample included 4,623 participants, who were taken from every parish across the length and breadth of Jamaica, “so it is a good study or data collection that can be used as a generalisable operational sample for the whole of Jamaica”.

From that sample, 1,060 motor-vehicle drivers, which is approximately 25 per cent of the sample population, were extracted.

“Using that sample size, we were able to conduct a study to look at the sociodemographic factors, to look at the risk of dependence and the prevalence amongst vehicle drivers in relation to drinking under the influence of alcohol,” the Consultant Psychiatrist pointed out. Dr. Lalwani revealed that almost 20 per cent of the drivers that drink alcohol, who were questioned, admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol and that 50 per cent of those persons admitted to being heavy alcohol users. (more)

“That is significant, because heavy alcohol use is synonymous with binge drinking and binge drinking is, for example, having five or more drinks at one sitting for a man or four or more at one sitting for a female,” he explained.

The study, Dr. Lalwani stated, was prompted by an increase in road fatalities in recent years.

He pointed out that the 2022 figure of 488 traffic deaths represents the highest number in the past 10 years “and so, in looking at that statistic, we wanted to find out a little bit more about the possible impact of drunk driving”.