title: Measuring accuracy of self-reported vehicular offences and blood alcohol concentration levels among whites and Mexican Americans mandated to drinking driver programs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Differences in self-reported rates of drinking and driving compared to official statistics have been found for Hispanics compared to whites, and is thought to be related to underreporting among Hispanics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Self-reported and California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)-reported number of vehicular offences and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels were compared between a sample of 249 respondents of Mexican descent (half of whom were born in Mexico) and 250 white non-Hispanics convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) in all five DUI treatment programs in one Northern California county.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of those Mexico-born respondents, 11% underreported compared to 7% for their America-born counterparts, while 3% of whites underreported. In addition, Mexico-born respondents underreported BAC levels more, on average, when comparing to DMV reports than their America-born counterparts and whites. Underreporting of BAC level was positively associated with individuals' negative attitudes towards drinking and negatively associated with frequency of heavy drinking, alcohol dependence, and the number of safety-related tickets or DUIs in the past year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Interview data combined with DMV data suggest that there are ethnic differences in accuracy of reporting vehicular offences and BAC levels, consistent with those found from other studies.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Institute, Alcohol Research Group, 2000 Hearst Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA. jbond@arg.org
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bond
authors.forename: Cheryl J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Cherpitel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000097:blood / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D002140:California; D003415:Crime; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000523:psychology*; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol