According to the latest American study, people whose friends accept drinking and driving are much more prone to drink and drive themselves, too.
The research carried out at the University of Michigan involved nearly 3 500 young adults. The study also discovered that individuals who are convinced that there are only several negative consequences of impaired driving - arrest or license suspension, for stance - are more probable to engage in such hazardous behavior.
"To policy makers, I’d say, perhaps it would be very useful to try to change a person’s group of friends, help them find friends who do not accept drinking and driving, and avoid those who do. It’s probably more difficult than some interventions but obviously worth it," the study author and associate professor Raymond Bingham said in a prepared statement.
He explained that efforts made in order to modify these two factors - social support for drinking and the belief that there are not many consequences for impaired driving - could have a considerable influence.
Considerable advances can be made
"If we decrease both of those risk factors by 50 per cent, then we can expect the rate of drinking/driving for women to fall by as much as 56 per cent," and by as much as 33 per cent for men, Bingham added.
Elevated law enforcement - such as sobriety checkpoints - and aggressive publicity may help alter behaviors and beliefs concerning drinking and driving, transportation safety specialist, Kenneth Beck, a professor of public and community health at the University of Maryland, said in a prepared statement. He was not engaged in the research.
The results of the study are published in the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
