Abstract
Objective: Drinking drive is a nationally recognized social problem. This research aimed to describe the relationship between drinking behavior and drinking drive based on the social demographic characteristics. Methods: This paper used secondary data for analyses which was derived from the national representative samples of adults; National Health and Nutrition Surveys by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in 1998 and 2001. For data analyses, univariate analysis, Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were adopted for the samples of male adults who were driving and 20 years old and more. Results: The prevalence of drinking drive varied significantly among socio-demographic characteristics. The year prevalence rates of drinking drive were 29.1% in 1998 and 16.4% in 2001. In the rates of drinking drive, males were higher than those of females in both years. By age, twenties to thirties showed the highest ratio of drinking drive(odd ratio=18.8), compared with the sixties. Related to the occupation, the persons who were engaging in farming and fishery showed the highest ratio(odd ratio=3.73) of drinking drive in comparison to the unemployed. Conclusions: People who drink alcohol frequently tended to have more experiences of drinking drive. In addition, the drivers who drink more amount of alcohol drinking were significantly associated with higher rates of drinking drive, as well. Strategy based on the socio-demographic characteristics may provide a promising prevention of reducing drinking drive. Community-based efforts, education, self-awareness and public-awareness to address drinking and drinking drive problems are effective in reducing drinking drive. Enacting comprehensive regulations which control drinking drive can reduce both alcohol use and drinking drive.