Karolinska Institutet, Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of Public Health Epidemiology, Stockholm, Sweden.
BMC Public Health. 2010 Jan 14;10:14. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-10-14.
Young car drivers run a higher risk of road traffic crash and injury not only because of their lack of experience but also because of their young age and their greater propensity for adopting unsafe driving practices. Also, low family socioeconomic position increases the risk of crash and of severe crash in particular. Whether this holds true for young unlicensed drivers as well is not known. Increasing attention is being drawn to the prevalence and practice of unlicensed driving among young people as an important contributor to road traffic fatalities.
This is a population-based cohort study linking Swedish national register data for a cohort of 1 616 621 individuals born between 1977 and 1991. Crash circumstances for first-time road traffic crash (RTC) were compared considering licensed and unlicensed drivers. The socioeconomic distribution of injury was assessed considering household socioeconomic position, social welfare benefits, and level of urbanicity of the living area. The main outcome measure is relative risk of RTC.
RTCs involving unlicensed drivers were over-represented among male drivers, suspected impaired drivers, severe injuries, crashes occurring in higher speed limit areas, and in fair road conditions. Unlicensed drivers from families in a lower socioeconomic position showed increased relative risks for RTC in the range of 1.75 to 3.25. Those living in rural areas had an increased relative risk for a severe RTC of 3.29 (95% CI 2.47 - 4.39) compared to those living in metropolitan areas.
At the time of the crash, young unlicensed drivers display more risky driving practices than their licensed counterparts. Just as licensed drivers, unlicensed young people from low socioeconomic positions are over-represented in the most severe injury crashes. Whether the mechanisms lying behind those similarities compare between these groups remains to be determined.
年轻驾驶员不仅因为经验不足，而且因为年龄较小且更倾向于采取不安全的驾驶行为，所以发生道路交通事故和受伤的风险更高。此外，较低的家庭社会经济地位会增加事故发生的风险，尤其是严重事故发生的风险。年轻无证驾驶员是否也存在这种情况尚不清楚。无证驾驶在年轻人中普遍存在，且是导致道路交通死亡的一个重要因素，因此越来越受到关注。
这是一项基于人群的队列研究，将瑞典全国登记数据与 1977 年至 1991 年间出生的 1616621 名个体的队列相关联。比较了首次道路交通事故（RTC）中持证和无证驾驶员的事故情况。根据家庭社会经济地位、社会福利以及居住地区的城市人口比例评估了损伤的社会经济分布。主要观察指标是 RTC 的相对风险。
无证驾驶员涉及的 RTC 更常见于男性驾驶员、疑似醉酒驾驶员、重伤、发生在限速较高区域的事故以及路况良好的情况下。来自社会经济地位较低家庭的无证驾驶员，RTC 的相对风险在 1.75 至 3.25 之间增加。与居住在大都市区的人相比，居住在农村地区的人发生严重 RTC 的相对风险增加了 3.29（95%CI 2.47-4.39）。
在发生事故时，年轻无证驾驶员比持证人表现出更多危险的驾驶行为。就像有证驾驶员一样，社会经济地位较低的无证年轻驾驶员在最严重的伤害事故中所占比例过高。这些相似之处背后的机制在这两个群体之间是否存在差异，仍有待确定。
