title: Federal actions to incentivise state adoption of 0.08 g/dL blood alcohol concentration laws.
abstract: To model rates of 0.08 g/dL blood alcohol concentration (BAC) per se law implementation among the states associated with (1) a federal incentive grant programme and (2) a threat from the federal government to withhold highway transportation funds.
  
  
  
  An observational study of state-level 0.08 g/dL BAC per se law enactment among all 50 US states from 1982 to 2006 using a parametric survival analysis to assess the time-dependent risk of policy enactment.
  
  
  
  The federal government's threat to withhold transportation funds was associated with a 10.30 times greater hazard (HR: 10.30, 95% CI 3.88 to 27.36) of states adopting a 0.08 g/dL BAC law compared with periods of time when this threat was not in place. The incentive grant programme created by the federal government was associated with a non-significant 17% decrease in the hazard of states adopting a 0.08 g/dL BAC law (HR: 0.83, 95% CI 0.35 to 2.0).
  
  
  
  In the case of 0.08 g/dL BAC per se laws, the federal government's threat to withhold transportation funds was effective at accelerating policy adoption.
authors: Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy, Program for Injury Prevention Education and Research (PIPER), Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
authors: Gregory J
authors: GJ
authors: Tung
authors: Department of Health Policy & Management, Johns Hopkins Center for Law and the Public's Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors: Jon S
authors: JS
authors: Vernick
authors: Department of Mental Health and Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors: Elizabeth A
authors: EA
authors: Stuart
authors: Department of Health Policy & Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors: Daniel W
authors: DW
authors: Webster
authors: Department of Health, Behavior & Society, Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors: Andrea C
authors: AC
authors: Gielen
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000067401:Blood Alcohol Content; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D035846:Law Enforcement; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011640:Public Policy; D013219:State Government; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000067401:Blood Alcohol Content