Carlson School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2021 Jan 27;23(1):e15402. doi: 10.2196/15402.
Alcohol consumption is associated with a wide range of adverse health consequences and a leading cause of preventable deaths. Ride-hailing services such as Uber have been found to prevent alcohol-related motor vehicle fatalities. These services may, however, facilitate alcohol consumption generally and binge drinking in particular.
The goal of the research is to measure the impact of ride-hailing services on the extent and intensity of alcohol consumption. We allow these associations to depend on population density as the use of ride-hailing services varies across markets.
We exploit the phased rollout of the ride-hailing platform Uber using a difference-in-differences approach. We use this variation to measure changes in alcohol consumption among a local population following Uber's entry. Data are drawn from Uber press releases to capture platform entry and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Systems (BRFSS) Annual Survey to measure alcohol consumption in 113 metropolitan areas. Models are estimated using fixed-effects Poisson regression. Pre- and postentry trends are used to validate this approach.
Ride-hailing has no association with the extent of alcohol consumption in high (0.61 [95% CI -0.05% to 1.28%]) or low (0.61 [95% CI -0.05% to 1.28%]) density markets, but is associated with increases in the binge drinking rate in high-density markets (0.71 [95% CI 0.13% to 1.29%]). This corresponds to a 4% increase in binge drinking within a Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Ride-hailing services are associated with an increase in binge drinking, which has been associated with a wide array of adverse health outcomes. Drunk driving rates have fallen for more than a decade, while binge drinking continues to climb. Both trends may be accelerated by ride-hailing services. This suggests that health information messaging should increase emphasis on the direct dangers of alcohol consumption and binge drinking.
饮酒与广泛的健康不良后果有关，是可预防死亡的主要原因。优步等叫车服务已被发现可预防与酒精相关的机动车死亡事故。然而，这些服务可能会普遍促进饮酒，特别是 binge drinking。
本研究旨在衡量叫车服务对饮酒程度和强度的影响。我们允许这些关联取决于人口密度，因为叫车服务在不同市场的使用情况有所不同。
我们利用叫车平台优步的分阶段推出，采用双重差分法。我们利用这种变化来衡量优步进入后，当地人口的饮酒量变化。数据来自优步的新闻稿，以捕捉平台进入情况，以及行为风险因素监测系统（BRFSS）年度调查，以衡量 113 个大都市区的饮酒情况。模型使用固定效应泊松回归进行估计。使用进入前后的趋势来验证这种方法。
叫车服务与高（0.61 [95%置信区间 -0.05%至 1.28%]）或低（0.61 [95%置信区间 -0.05%至 1.28%]）密度市场的饮酒量没有关联，但与高密度市场的 binge drinking 率增加有关（0.71 [95%置信区间 0.13%至 1.29%]）。这相当于大都市区内 binge drinking 率增加 4%。
叫车服务与 binge drinking 增加有关， binge drinking 与广泛的健康不良后果有关。醉酒驾驶率在过去十年中下降，而 binge drinking 继续上升。这两个趋势都可能因叫车服务而加速。这表明，健康信息宣传应更加强调饮酒和 binge drinking 的直接危害。
