Measuring accuracy of self-reported vehicular offences and blood alcohol concentration levels among whites and Mexican Americans mandated to drinking driver programs.

BACKGROUND

Differences in self-reported rates of drinking and driving compared to official statistics have been found for Hispanics compared to whites, and is thought to be related to underreporting among Hispanics.

METHODS

Self-reported and California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)-reported number of vehicular offences and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels were compared between a sample of 249 respondents of Mexican descent (half of whom were born in Mexico) and 250 white non-Hispanics convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) in all five DUI treatment programs in one Northern California county.

RESULTS

Of those Mexico-born respondents, 11% underreported compared to 7% for their America-born counterparts, while 3% of whites underreported. In addition, Mexico-born respondents underreported BAC levels more, on average, when comparing to DMV reports than their America-born counterparts and whites. Underreporting of BAC level was positively associated with individuals' negative attitudes towards drinking and negatively associated with frequency of heavy drinking, alcohol dependence, and the number of safety-related tickets or DUIs in the past year.

CONCLUSIONS

Interview data combined with DMV data suggest that there are ethnic differences in accuracy of reporting vehicular offences and BAC levels, consistent with those found from other studies.