ABSTRACT
A telephone survey was conducted of a random sample of New York State licensed drivers to determine the prevalence and circumstances of drowsy driving. Based on the survey responses, 54.6% of the drivers had driven while drowsy within the past year; 22.6% had ever fallen asleep at the wheel without having a crash, 2.8% had ever crashed when they fell asleep, and 1.9% had crashed when driving while drowsy. Of the reported crashes due to driving while drowsy or falling asleep at the wheel, 82.5% involved the driver alone in the vehicle, 60.0% occurred between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. 47.5% were drive-off-road crashes, and 40.0% occurred on a highway or expressway. Multiple regression analysis suggested that the following driver variables are predictive of an increased frequency of driving drowsy: demographic characteristics (younger drivers, more education, and men); sleep patterns (fewer hours of sleep at night and greater frequency of trouble staying awake during the day); work patterns (greater frequency of driving for job and working rotating shifts); and driving patterns (greater number of miles driven annually and fewer number of hours a person can drive before becoming drowsy).
Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic/statistics & numerical data , Automobile Driving/statistics & numerical data , Sleep Stages , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Female , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , New York/epidemiology , Predictive Value of Tests , Prevalence , Regression Analysis , Risk Factors , Surveys and Questionnaires , Time Factors , Work Schedule ToleranceSubject(s)
Health Maintenance Organizations , Patient Satisfaction/statistics & numerical data , Physicians, Family/standards , Health Maintenance Organizations/standards , Health Services Accessibility , Physician-Patient Relations , Quality of Health Care , Time Factors , United States , WorkforceABSTRACT
Levinson and Ramsay (J. Hlth soc. Behav. 20, 178, 1979) recently suggested that high life stress may be related to violent behavior among mental patients. Data are reported here from community interviews with 148 former patients and 245 respondents from the general population to further test this relationship. Self reports of the frequency of life stress events and four types of aggressive behavior ranging from arguments to assaults with weapons were obtained. High life stress was found to be associated with more frequent disputes of all types for both population. When these relationships were examined with demographic control variables, the significant effects of life stress remained only for the mental patients. The implications of these findings for a situation-based approach to violence and to stress research are considered.
