Preliminary results for street racing among adults in Ontario: relations to alcohol and cannabis use.
Smart, Reginald G. ; Stoduto, Gina ; Vingilis, Evelyn 等
Dear Editor:
Street racing has a long history, dating back to the 1920s shortly
after cars became cheap, plentiful and available to the masses. Many
movies and songs idolize street racers, e.g., "Rebel Without a
Cause" and "The Fast and the Furious". There have been
several recent instances where street racers or innocent bystanders have
been fatally injured. Street racing is now a problem in countries
worldwide, with deaths and injuries reported in many. (1,2) However,
little is known about the factors associated with this behaviour. We
examined street racing and its links to various alcohol and cannabis
measures among adults in Ontario.
We employed data from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Monitor (CM), a general population telephone survey conducted in Ontario
(January 2009 to December 2010). The survey consists of a representative
sample of adults (aged 18 and older) who were asked if they had driven a
car, truck or SUV in a street race in the previous 12 months (N=4,273).
(3) Demographic and substance use measures were also collected in the
survey.
Results from preliminary analyses (see Table 1) revealed that the
prevalence of self-reported street racing within the previous year was
1.0%, and was significantly related to sex, age, alcohol problems (8+ on
the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, AUDIT), heavy drinking
(monthly drinking of 5+ drinks on one occasion), cannabis use and
drinking driving. Street racing was most commonly reported by males
between the ages of 18 and 34 (4.5%, 95% CI 2.5-7.9), drinking drivers
(5.5%), respondents with an alcohol problem (3.0%), respondents who used
cannabis in the previous 12 months (3.0%), and heavy drinkers (1.9%). It
was found that, compared to non-racers, those who engaged in street
racing were five times as likely to have alcohol problems, seven times
as likely to drink and drive and four times as likely to use cannabis.
This study suggests that heavy drinking, alcohol problems, cannabis
use and drinking driving are associated with street racing among adults.
These characteristics are similar to those found for aggressive driving,
road rage and other types of dangerous driving. (4-6) The results given
here are preliminary as they are not based on a large sample of street
racers but rather a large sample of the population. Further studies are
needed to extend and amplify these results, however in the meantime it
appears that street racing is associated with both alcohol and other
drug use in high-risk drivers.
REFERENCES
(1.) Knight S, Cook LJ, Olson LM. The fast and the fatal: Street
racing fatal crashes in the United States. Inj Prev 2004;10:53-55.
(2.) Folkman L-M. Queensland's anti-hoon legislation and
policing methods used to prevent hooning behaviour. Proceedings of the
Australasian Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference,
Wellington, New Zealand, 2005.
(3.) Ialomiteanu A, Adlaf EM. CAMH Monitor 2009 Technical Guide.
Toronto: CAMH, 2010. Available at:
www.camh.net/Research/Areas_of_research/Population_Life_Course_Studies/
CAMH_Monitor/CM2009_TechDoc_final.pdf (Accessed July 11, 2011).
(4.) Smart RG, Mann RE, Goldbloom DS. Road rage: Are our patients
driving angry? Psychiatric Times 2005;22(4):25-31. Available at:
www.psychiatrictimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=162100161 (Accessed
May 9, 2005).
(5.) Asbridge M, Poulin C, Donato A. Motor vehicle collision risk
and driving under the influence of cannabis: Evidence from adolescents
in Atlantic Canada. Accid Anal Prev 2005;37:1025-34.
(6.) Stoduto G, Dill P, Mann RE, Wells-Parker E, Toneatto T, Shuggi
R. Examining the link between drinking-driving and depressed mood. J
Stud Alcohol Drugs 2008;69:777-80.
Reginald G. Smart, [1] Gina Stoduto, [1] * Evelyn Vingilis, [2]
Christine M. Wickens, [1] Robert E. Mann, [1,3] Anca Ialomiteanu [1]
[1.] Social and Epidemiological Research, Centre for Addiction
& Mental Health, Toronto, ON
[2.] Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of
Western Ontario, London, ON
[3.] Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto,
Toronto, ON
* Author for correspondence: gina_stoduto@camh.net
Table 1. Street Racing by Sample Characteristics: CM January
2009 to December 2010
Street Racer
Sample
N n % 95% CI
Total 4273 32 1.0 0.7-1.5
Sex ***
Males 1916 25 1.7 1.1-2.7
Females 2357 7 0.3 0.1-0.7
Age (years) ***
18-34 616 15 2.4 1.3-4.2
35-54 1741 10 0.6 0.3-1.3
55+ 1832 7 0.5 0.2-1.2
AUDIT 8+ ***
No 3681 17 0.6 0.3-1.0
Yes 520 12 3.0 1.6-5.7
Five plus drinking
monthly--last 12
months *
No 3529 21 0.8 0.5-1.3
Yes 725 10 1.9 0.9-3.9
Weekly alcohol volume
consumed (drinks)
mean (sd)
Non-street racer 3.63 (6.97) 3.39-3.87
Street racer 5.45 (6.29) 3.06-7.85
Drinking driving--last
12 months ***
No 3989 22 0.7 0.4-1.2
Yes 249 10 5.5 2.7-10.9
Cannabis use--last 12
months ***
No 3784 19 0.7 0.4-1.2
Yes 453 13 3.0 1.6-5.3
Notes: N is the number of unweighted cases and % is the percentage of
subgroups of each variable based on weighted data. All analyses are
sample design adjusted. 95% CI=95% confidence interval. Comparisons
of street racers and non-street racers on each variable were
performed using STATA. Chi-square and t-test significance:
* p<0.05 ** p<0.01 *** p<0.001.
CM = Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Monitor.
