Objective Drink driving is widely recognised as a major road safety problem. In Australia, health promotion messages encourage monitoring the number of standard drinks consumed prior to driving. The pilot research aimed to investigate commuting behaviour and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of diners, including intended-drivers, at Sunshine Coast restaurants. Methods Five hundred and forty-four diners (n = 260 males) consented to participate in a brief interview and to use a breathalyser device to measure their BAC. Results Forty percent of participants advised they don't drink and drive (34% of males, 45% of females; 67.25% of <17-20 years, 30.5% of 50-59 years), and of the remaining participants, 75% advised they count the number of their drinks (69% of males, 84% of females; 32% of <17-20 years, 82% of 50-59 years) while 10% of participants monitored their BAC by how they were feeling (12% of males, 6% of females). Thirty-seven percent of participants said it was easy/very easy to estimate their BAC (41% of males; 33% of females; 21% of <17-20 years, 43% of 50-59 years). The actual BAC was less than expected for 56% of participants, with one third underestimating BAC and some intended-drivers having an actual BAC in excess of the 0.05 limit. Conclusions Given the proportion of diners who reported they count the number of drinks, or use feelings as a way to gauge BAC, coupled with the considerable proportion who underestimated their BAC, a safer public health message is to avoid driving if you intend to drink. In addition, targeted intervention for experienced drivers (and, arguably, drinkers) appears warranted as every participant aged less than 21 years who stated they would drive home indeed had a zero BAC. Interestingly every female driver who stated they would be driving home also had a legal BAC, suggesting gender-specific intervention.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 August 2017.
All research outputs
#17,373,490
of 27,515,430 outputs
Outputs from Traffic Injury Prevention
#632
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Outputs of similar age
#187,647
of 331,971 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Traffic Injury Prevention
#16
of 42 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 27,515,430 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 35th percentile – i.e., 35% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,451 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 42 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its contemporaries.
