Relationship between Road Traffic Accidents and Drinking Habits in All 47 Prefectures of Japan

doi:10.4236/jtts.2013.33019

Paper Menu >>

Journal Menu >>

Journal of Transportation Technologies, 2013, 3, 190-193

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jtts.2013.33019 Published Online July 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jtts)

Relationship between Road Traffic Accidents and

Drinking Habits in All 47 Prefectures of Japan

Nobuyuki Miyatake1, Naoko Tanaka2, Noriko Sakano1, Hiroshi Kinoshita2

1Department of Hygiene, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan

2Department of Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan

Email: [email protected], [email protected],

[email protected], [email protected]

Received April 1, 2013; revised May 1, 2013; accepted May 9, 2013

cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

We evaluated the road traffic accidents and drinking habits in all 47 prefectures of Japan by ecological study. Data on

traffic accidents were obtained from Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan. Drinking habits were also

obtained from Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare and The General Insurance Association of Japan. The effect of

drinking on road traffic accidents was evaluated by ecological study. Road traffic accidents were 15442.0 ± 14404.9

deaths due to road traffic accidents were 103.5 ± 57.5 and injured subjects due to road traffic accidents were 19068.3 ±

17433.6 in 2010 in all 47 prefectures of Japan. Drinking habits was significantly and negatively correlated with injured

subjects due to road traffic accidents. However, road traffic accidents due to drinking was positively correlated with

injured subjects due to road traffic accidents (r = 0.492, p = 0.0004). In conclusion, drinking habits and road traffic ac-

cidents due to drunk driving were closely linked to injured subjects due to road traffic accidents in Japan.

Keywords: Road Traffic Accidents; Drinking Habits; Ecological Study; Japan

1. Introduction

In many countries as well as Japan, automobiles are nec-

essary. Road traffic accidents and its relation to death

and injury have still been public health challenge in Ja-

pan. For example, a total of 725,773 road traffic acci-

dents and 4363 deaths was reported by Ministry of In-

ternal Affairs and Communications, Japan [1]. Therefore,

reducing road traffic accidents and its related death and

injury is urgently required in Japan.

Many factors were thought to be associated with road

traffic accidents. Number of cars in Japan has dramati-

cally increased last 30 years [2]. Drinking habits and

drunk driving are thought to be closely linked to road

traffic accidents and many health related problems, and

men with drinking habits are reported to be 35.4% in

Japan [3]. However, there are differences of drinking

habits among 47 prefectures in Japan [4]. In addition, the

effect of drinking habits on road traffic accidents still

remains to be investigated in the Japanese.

The aim of this study was to explore the link between

road traffic accidents and drinking habits in the Japanese

by ecological study.

2. Data Collection and Analysis

2.1. Road Traffic Accidents

Data on road traffic accidents in 2010 in all 47 prefectures

of Japan i.e. number of traffic accidents, number of death

due to road traffic accidents, number of injured subjects

due to road traffic accidents, number of death (per ten

thousand cars and per a hundred thousand people) and

number of injured subjects (per ten thousand cars and per

a hundred thousand people) were obtained from official

web site of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communica-

tions, Japan [1]. Road traffic accidents due to drinking

(per a hundred thousand people with driving license) in

2011 were also employed from The General Insurance

Association of Japan [5]. These data were officially and

accurately obtained from all 47 prefectures of Japan.

2.2. Drinking Habits

Data on drinking habits in men in all 47 prefectures of

Japan were obtained from Ministry of Health Labour and

Welfare, Japan [4]. These data were also officially and

obtained by appropriate sampling. In addition, data were

N. MIYATAKE ET AL. 191

averaged from 2008 to 2012, and adjusted for age [4].

Men with over the alcohol level of 1 go (180 ml of Japa-

nese rice wine) per a day and 3 days per a week were

defined as having drinking habits. The effect of drinking

habits on road traffic accidents was evaluated by using

ecological study.

2.3. Statistical Analysis

A simple correlation analysis was used to test the sig-

nificance of the linear relationship among continuous

variables, and multiple regression analysis was also per-

formed to adjust parameters: p < 0.05 was considered to

be statistically significant.

3. Results

Profiles of all 47 prefectures of Japan were summarized

in Table 1. Road traffic accidents were 15442.0 ±

14404.9, death due to road traffic accidents were 103.5 ±

57.5 and injured subjects due to road traffic accidents

were 19068.3 ± 17433.6 in 2010 of Japan.

Drinking habits are well known to be one of major

cause of road traffic accidents. Therefore, we also inves-

tigated the relationships between road traffic accidents

parameters and drinking habits in men (Table 2). Drink-

ing habits in men were significantly and negatively cor-

related with injured subjects (per ten thousand cars and

per a hundred thousand people) due to road traffic acci-

dents (Figure 1). However, road traffic accidents due to

drinking (per a hundred thousand people with driving

license) were significantly and positively correlated with

injured subjects (per a hundred thousand people) due to

road traffic accidents (Table 3 and Figure 2). There was

not significant relationship between drinking habits in

men and road traffic accidents due to drinking (per a

hundred thousand people with driving license) (r =

−0.286). Finally, multiple regression analysis was also

performed to evaluate the effect of drinking habits in

men and road traffic accidents due to drinking (per a

hundred thousand people with driving license) on road

traffic accidents [injured subjects (per a hundred thou-

sand people) due to road traffic accidents = 1284.511 -

23.211 drinking habits in men +41.329 road traffic acci-

dents due to drinking (per a hundred thousand people

with driving license), r2 = 0.427, p < 0.0001].

4. Discussion

We firstly evaluated the link between road traffic acci-

dents and drinking in Japan by ecological study. Drink-

ing habits were closely associated with road traffic acci-

dents.

Drinking is a strong risk factor for traffic accident.

Matsushita reported that subjects with drunken driving

experience were to be 30% in men and 8% in women in

Table 1. Profiles of all 47 prefectures of Japan.

Mean ± SD MinimumMaximum

Prefectures 47

Road traffic accidents15442.0 ± 14404.9 181.2 55014

Death due to road traffic

accidents 103.5 ± 57.5 31 215

Injured subjects due to

road traffic accidents 19068.3 ± 17433.6 2261 62836

Death (per ten thousand

cars) 0.6 ± 0.1 0.4 0.8

Injured subjects (per ten

thousand cars) 91.3 ± 31.4 37.2 162.1

Death (per a hundred

thousand people) 4.8 ± 1.4 1.7 7.3

Injured subjects (per a

hundred thousand

people)

728.3 ± 263.0 314.9 1454.3

Drink habits (men) (%)36.4 ± 5.1 28.6 51.6

Road traffic accidents

due to drinking (per a

hundred thousand people

with driving license)

7.0 ± 2.3 3.2 14.0

Table 2. Simple correlation analysis between road traffic

accidents and drinking habits (men).

r p

Death (per ten

thousand cars) 0.010 0.9457

Injured subjects (per

ten thousand cars) −0.516 0.0002

Death (per a hundred

thousand people) −0.044 0.7674

Injured subjects (per

a hundred thousand

people)

−0.553 <0.0001

Table 3. Simple correlation analysis between road traffic

accidents and road traffic accidents due to drinking (per a

hundred thousand people with driving lic e nse ).

r p

Death (per ten

thousand cars) 0.127 0.3937

Injured subjects (per

ten thousand cars) 0.256 0.0823

Death (per a hundred

thousand people) 0.276 0.0602

Injured subjects (per

a hundred thousand

people)

0.492 0.0004

N. MIYATAKE ET AL.

192

100

120

140

160

180

Injured subjects (/ten thousand cars)

27.5 30 32.5 35 37.5 40 42.5 45 47.5 50 52.5

Drinking habits (men) ％

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Injured subjects (/a hundred thousand people)

27.5 30 32.535 37.5 40 42.5 45 47.5 50 52.5

r=-0.516

p=0.0002

r=-0.553

p<0.0001

Drinking habits (men) ％

Figure 1. Simple correlation analysis between injured subjects (per ten thousand cars and per a hundred thousand people)

and drinking habits (%) in men in all 47 prefectures of Japan. r: correlatio n coefficient, p: p valu e.

100

120

140

160

180

2468 10 12 14 16

Road traffic accidents due to drinking

(/a hundred thousand people with driving license)

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

2 4 6 810 12 14 16

r=0.256

p=0.0823 r=0.492

p=0.000 4

Injured subjects (/ten thousand cars)

Injured subjects (/a hundred thousand people)

Road traffic accidents due to drinking

(/a hundred thousand people with driving license)

Figure 2. Simple correlation analysis between injured subjects (per ten thousand cars and per a hundred thousand people)

and road traffic accidents due to dr inking (per a hundred thousand people with driving lic ense) in all 47 prefec tures of Japan.

r: correlation coefficient, p: p value.

Japan. In addition, men in their 40’s - 60’s and women in

their 30’s had higher drunk driving experience [6]. The

effect of drinking on driving factors i.e. reaction time,

tracking, attention, watching and driving skills were ob-

served at extremely low concentration of alcohol [7,8]. It

has been reported that most of the blood ethanol concen-

tration of the victims in case of fatal self crash injury by

drinking driving ranges between 1 - 2 mg/ml [9]. This

may be due to the impairment of coordination or move-

ment, and changes in processing information by alcohol.

Fujita et al. examined and decreased the number of

drunken driving accidents at Kagawa prefecture, after the

change in the Road Traffic Low, Japan [10]. We proved

the road traffic accidents due to drinking (per a hundred

people with driving license) were positively correlated

with injured subjects due to road traffic accidents. How-

ever, drinking habits were negatively correlated with in-

jured subjects due to road traffic accidents by ecological

study. According to the National Nutrition Survey in

Japan, The criterion of the prevalence of subjects with

drinking habits is thought to be comparatively strict [4].

Taken together, subjects with obvious higher drinking

habits may not drive. However, low concentration of

alcohol may induce traffic accidents due to drunken

driving. Therefore, it is reasonable that we need to deal

with drunk driving with low concentration of alcohol in

Japan.

Potential limitations still remain in this study. First, we

used an ecological study. The link between road traffic

accidents and drinking habits, which was noted in this

study, may not apply for the link among individuals. In

fact, Impinen et al. reported that social factors, such as

low level of education, unemployment, living and di-

vorce, were associated with drunken driving [11]. Second,

detailed daily and individual (i.e. age and sex) data of

road traffic accidents and drinking could not be obtained

and analyzed in this study. The third, we could not obtain

the data of drinking habits in women. Therefore, we

could not evaluate the link between road traffic accidents

and drinking as accurately as we wished. Further ongoing

N. MIYATAKE ET AL. 193

investigations are urgently required to prove such a link.

REFERENCES

[1] Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan,

“Road Traffic Accidents by Prefecture,” 2010. (in Japa-

nese) http://www.stat.go.jp/data/nenkan/back61/26.htm

[2] Automobile Inspection & Registration Information Asso-

ciation, Japan, “Trend of Number of Cars in Japan,” 2012.

(in Japanese) http://www.airia.or.jp/number/pdf/03_1.pdf

[3] Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare, Japan, “The Na-

tional Nutrition Survey, Japan,” 2011. (in Japanese)

http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/2r98520000020qbb-at

t/2r98520000021c19.pdf

[4] Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare, Japan, “The Na-

tional Nutrition Survey, Japan,” 2010. (in Japanese)

http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/kenkou/eiyou/dl/h22-houk

oku-11.pdf

[5] The General Insurance Association of Japan, “Traffic

Accidents Due to Drinking in 47 Prefectures of Japan,”

2011. (in Japanese)

http://www.sonpo.or.jp/protection/insyu/kenbetsu.html

[6] S. Matsushita, “Characteristics of Drink Drivers: Results

from a Japanese Nationwide Survey,” Japanese Journal

of Alcohol & Drug Dependence, Vol. 46, No. 1, 2011, pp.

29-40. (in Japanese)

[7] E. J. D. Ogden and H. Moskowitz, “Effects of Alcohol

and Other Drugs on Driver Performance,” Traffic Injury

Prevention, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2004, pp. 185-198.

doi:10.1080/15389580490465201

[8] S. Higuchi, “Factors that Affect Safe Driving,” Japanese

Journal of Alcohol Studies & Drug Dependence, Vol. 46,

No. 1, 2011, pp. 127-139. (in Japanese)

[9] I. Ijiri, K. Ameno, S. Ameno, C. Fuke and H. Kinoshita,

“Drunkness and Compensation Medicine,” Journal of

Compensation Medicine, Vol. 19, No. 1, 1994, pp. 25-31.

(in Japanese)

[10] Y. Fujita, K. Inoue, A. Sakuta, N. Seki, T. Miyazawa and

K. Eguchi, “An Epidemiological Analysis of Drunk Driv-

ing Accidents in Kagawa Prefecture—Comparison of

1997-2000 and 2003-2006,” Journal of Forensic and Le-

gal M edici ne, Vol. 15, No. 7, 2008, pp. 469-470.

doi:10.1016/j.jflm.2008.03.004

[11] A. Impinen, P. Makela, K. Karjalainen, J. Haukka, T.

Lintonen, P. Lillsunde, O. Rahkonen and A. Ostamo, “The

Association between Social Determinants and Drunken

Driving: A 15-Year Register-Based Study of 81,125 Sub-

jects,” Alcohol and Alcoholism, Vol. 46, No. 6, 2011, pp.

721-728. doi:10.1093/alcalc/agr075