Quantifying the role of risk-taking behaviour in causation of serious road crash-related injury.
This study was designed to quantify the increased risk of road crash-related injury, which can be attributed to risk-taking behaviour. A case-control study was conducted to compare motor vehicle drivers (car and bike) who had been hospitalised for injuries following crashes with population-based controls. Cases were recruited prospectively over 12 months and controls were randomly selected from license holders (car and bike) living in the same geographical location as cases. A self-administered questionnaire was used to ascertain participants' driving behaviour, general risk-taking behaviour and selected demographic characteristics. After adjusting for demographic variables, number of years of driving and total distance driven per week, logistic regression analysis showed that a high risk acceptance was associated with an eight-fold increased risk of having a crash that resulted in serious injury (OR 7.8, 95% CI 4.2-15.8). The findings of this study support the suggestion that certain host factors increase the risk of crash-related serious injury. There would appear to be a reasonable argument for persisting with injury prevention programmes, which concentrate on host as well as environment risk factor reduction.
Turner
Cathy
C
School of Population Health, Mayne Medical School, University of Queensland, Herston Road, Herston, Queensland 4006, Brisbane, Australia.
McClure
Rod
R
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001336:Automobiles / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009049:Motorcycles / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012309:Risk-Taking