Background
International debates are occurring about the effectiveness of minimum legal drinking
age laws. Most minimum legal drinking age evaluation studies have focused on motor
vehicle collision outcomes, but this literature is primarily based on naturalistic
experiments involving legislation changes in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. Few studies
have provided up-to-date estimates of the impacts of Canadian drinking age laws on
motor vehicle collisions to inform current policy discussions.
Purpose
To estimate the impacts of minimum legal drinking age legislation on motor vehicle
collisions occurring in 2000–2012 in Québec, a province with a minimum legal drinking
age of 18 years.
Methods
Using Québec Ministry of Transportation records of police-reported motor vehicle collisions
in 2000−2012, regression-discontinuity analyses were employed to assess the impacts
of the minimum legal drinking age on motor vehicle collisions. All data were analyzed
in 2013.
Results
Relative to individuals slightly younger than the minimum legal drinking age, male
and female drivers just older than the minimum legal drinking age had a significant
and abrupt increase of approximately 6% (men, 6.3%, p=0.003; women, 5.9%, p=0.047) in population-level motor vehicle collisions, as well as a significant 11.1%
(p=0.001) rise in nighttime motor vehicle collisions (a proxy for alcohol-related collisions).
Conclusions
Drinking-age laws continue to be an integral component of contemporary alcohol-control
and driving-related policies designed to limit motor vehicle collisions among youth.
In addition, the regression-discontinuity approach can guide future work to estimate
potential minimum legal drinking age impacts on other health outcomes.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to American Journal of Preventive MedicineAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Global burden of disease in young people aged 10−24 years: a systematic analysis.Lancet. 2011; 377: 2093-2102
- A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990−2010: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2010.Lancet. 2012; 380: 2224-2260
- Alcohol: no ordinary commodity.2nd ed. Oxford University Press, New York NY2010
- Canadian Public Health Association position paper: too high a cost: a public health approach to alcohol policy in Canada.Canadian Public Health Association, Ottawa ON2011 (www.cpha.ca/uploads/positions/position-paper-alcohol_e.pdf)
- Reducing alcohol-related harm in Canada: toward a culture of moderation. Recommendations for a national alcohol strategy.Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, Ottawa ON2007 (www.ndphs.org///documents/515/Canada_Paper_NAS_to_Riga_Conference_Jan_30_07_1.pdf)
- Strategies to reduce alcohol-related harms and costs in Canada: a comparison of provincial policies.Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto ON2013 (www.camh.ca/en/research/news_and_publications/reports_and_books/Documents/Strategies%20to%20Reduce%20Alcohol%20Related%20Harms%20and%20Costs%202013.pdf)
- Reducing alcohol-related harms and costs in Ontario: a provincial summary report.Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto ON2013 (www.camh.ca/en/research/Documents/Provincial%20summary_ON_final.pdf)
- Reducing alcohol-related harms and costs in British Columbia: a provincial summary report. CARBC Bulletin #10.Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia, Victoria BC2013 (www.carbc.ca/Portals/0/propertyagent/558/files/335/bulletin%202013-08.pdf)
- Reducing alcohol-related harms and costs in Alberta: a provincial summary report.Centre for Addictions Research of BC, Victoria BC2013 (www.carbc.ca/Portals/0/propertyagent/558/files/352/albertaprovsumm2013-09.pdf)
- Reducing alcohol-related harms and costs in Manitoba: a provincial summary report.Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto ON2013
- Reducing alcohol-related harms and costs in Saskatchewan: a provincial summary report.Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto ON2013
- Reducing alcohol-related harms and costs in New Brunswick: a provincial summary report.Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS2013
- Reducing alcohol-related harms and costs in Newfoundland and Labrador: a provincial summary report.Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS2013
- Reducing alcohol-related harms and costs in Nova Scotia: a provincial summary report.Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax NS2013
Asbridge M, Pauley C. Reducing alcohol-related harms and costs in Prince Edward Island: a provincial summary report. Halifax NS: Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, 2013.
CBC News. Drinking age will remain 19 in Saskatchewan. CBC News. 2013. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2013/03/04/sk-drinking-age-1303.html.
- B.C. liquor policy review final report.British Columbia Ministry of Justice, Victoria BC2013 (www2.gov.bc.ca/local/haveyoursay/Docs/liquor_policy_review_report.pdf)
- Liquor regulatory review—additional information.Government of Saskatchewan, Regina SK2013
- A discussion paper on liquor and gaming regulation.Manitoba Gaming Control Commission, Winnipeg MB2012
- Effects of minimum drinking age laws: review and analyses of the literature from 1960 to 2000.J Stud Alcohol Suppl. 2002; 14: 206-225
- Minimum purchasing age for alcohol and traffic crash injuries among 15- to 19-year-olds in New Zealand.Am J Public Health. 2006; 96: 126-131
- Reviews of evidence regarding interventions to reduce alcohol-impaired driving.Am J Prev Med. 2001; 21: 66-88
- The effects of minimum legal drinking age 21 laws on alcohol-related driving in the United States.J Safety Res. 2010; 41: 173-181
- Paying the tab: the costs and benefits of alcohol control.Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ2007
- The impact of underage drinking laws on alcohol-related fatal crashes of young drivers.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2009; 33: 1208-1219
- The relationship of underage drinking laws to reductions in drinking drivers in fatal crashes in the United States.Accid Anal Prev. 2008; 40: 1430-1440
- Assessing the effectiveness of minimum legal drinking age and zero tolerance laws in the United States.Accid Anal Prev. 2003; 35: 579-587
- Joint impacts of minimum legal drinking age and beer taxes on US youth traffic fatalities, 1975 to 2001.Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2007; 31: 804-813
- Lives saved by the federal motor vehicle safety standards and other vehicle safety technologies, 1960-2002—passenger cars and light trucks—with a review of 19 FMVSS and their effectiveness in reducing fatalities, injuries and crashes.Evaluation Division, National Center for Statistics and Analysis National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington DC2004
- Challenges in motor vehicle safety.Annu Rev Publ Health. 2002; 23: 93-113
- Graduated driver licensing and teen traffic fatalities.J Health Econ. 2005; 24: 571-589
- Graduated licensing laws and fatal crashes of teenage drivers: a national study.Traffic Inj Prev. 2010; 11: 240-248
- Graduated driver licensing and fatal crashes involving 16- to 19-year-old drivers.JAMA. 2011; 306: 1098-1103
- Best practices for graduated driver licensing in Canada.Traffic Injury Research Foundation, Ottawa ON2005 (www.ibc.ca/en/Car_Insurance/documents/graduated_licensing/TIRF-fullreportGDL-oct2005.pdf)
- The effects of Ontario’s administrative driver׳s license suspension law on total driver fatalities: a multiple time series analysis.Drugs Educ Prev Policy. 2009; 16: 140-151
- The effects of introducing or lowering legal per se blood alcohol limits for driving: an international review.Accid Anal Prev. 2001; 33: 569-583
- An evaluation of the deterrent impact of Ontario’s 12-hour license suspension law.Accid Anal Prev. 1988; 20: 9-17
- Cost-effectiveness of interventions to prevent alcohol-related disease and injury in Australia.Addiction. 2009; 104: 1646-1655
- Alcohol policy reform in Australia: what can we learn from the evidence?.Med J Aust. 2010; 192: 468-470
- Alcohol reform bill through faster.Otago Daily Times, Otago NZ2012 (www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/237188/alcohol-reform-bill-through-faster)
- The age-21 minimum legal drinking age: a case study linking past and current debates.Addiction. 2009; 104: 1958-1965
- The effect of alcohol consumption on mortality: regression discontinuity evidence from the minimum drinking age.Am Econ J Appl Econ. 2009; 1: 164-182
- The minimum legal drinking age and public health.J Econ Perspect. 2011; 25: 133-156
- The impact of minimum legal drinking age laws on alcohol consumption, smoking, and marijuana use: evidence from a regression discontinuity design using exact date of birth.J Health Econ. 2011; 30: 740-752
- The impact of drinking on psychological well-being: evidence from minimum drinking age laws in the United States.Soc Sci Med. 2012; 75: 1844-1854
Insurance Bureau of Canada. Car insurance. http://www.ibc.ca/en/Car_Insurance/PQ/.
- Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference.Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston MA2002
- Regression-discontinuity analysis: an alternative to the ex post facto experiment.J Educ Psychol. 1960; 51: 309-317
- Regression discontinuity designs in economics.J Econ Lit. 2009; 48: 281-355
- Identification and estimation of treatment effects with a regression-discontinuity design.Econometrica. 2001; 69: 201-209
- Regression discontinuity designs: a guide to practice.J Econometrics. 2007; 142: 615-635
- Linear regression analysis.John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York NY2003
- Regression analysis: statistical modeling of a response variable.2nd ed. Academic Press by Elsevier Inc, New York NY2006
- Effects of the minimum legal drinking age on alcohol-related health service use in hospital settings in Ontario: a regression-discontinuity approach.Am J Public Health. 2013; 103: 2284-2291
- Impacts of drinking-age laws on mortality in Canada, 1980–2009.Drug Alcohol Depen. 2014; 138: 137-145https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2014.02.019
- Impacts of the minimum legal drinking age legislation on in-patient morbidity in Canada, 1997−2007: a regression-discontinuity approach.Addiction. 2013; 108: 1590-1600
- Emergency room injury presentations as an indicator of alcohol-related problems in the community: a multilevel analysis of an international study.J Stud Alcohol. 2004; 65: 605-612
- The effect of raising the legal minimum drinking age on fatal crashes in 10 states.J Safety Res. 1986; 17: 117-121
- The effectiveness of alcohol control policies on alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the United States.Accid Anal Prev. 2012; 45: 406-415
Berthod C, Audet L, Bélanger C. Table Québécoise de la sécurité routière [Quebec safety task force]. Table Québécoise de la sécurité routière [Quebec safety task force]. Presentation for “Road safety vision successor plan for 2015 and other safety plans” at the Transportation Association of Canada’s 2010 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Halifax, NS, 2010. http://conf.tac-atc.ca/english/resourcecentre/readingroom/conference/conf2010/docs/c1/berthod-e.pdf.
Société de l׳assurance automobile du Québec. Frequently asked questions. Mandatory driving course measures in effect as of January 17, 2010. www.saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/faq/driving_course.php#q1.
Société de l׳assurance automobile du Québec. Driver׳s licence. Penalties related to demerit points. www.saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/driver_licence/penalties_demerit_points.php.
Société de l׳assurance automobile du Québec. Road safety. Zero alcohol. www.saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/road_safety/behaviour/alcohol/laws_penalties_costs/zero_alcohol.php.
- Table 1. Postsecondary participation rates of young adults aged 24 to 26 by December 2005, by province and type of institution attended.Statistics Canada, Toronto ON2008 (www.statcan.gc.ca.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/pub/81-595–m/2008070/t/6000006-eng.htm)
Les CÉGEPS du Québec. Directory of programs. http://www.cegepsquebec.ca/en/study-in-quebec/programs/.
Article Info
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
