An evaluation of a hospital-based drinking and driving prevention program.

For the past four years, Victoria Hospital has provided a drinking and driving prevention program: IMPACT - Impaired Minds Produced by Alcohol Cause Trauma. The program provides information to Grade 11 students about the potential "impact" of alcohol-related trauma on themselves, their family and their future. At the end of the program, students were asked to complete a short evaluative questionnaire; 74.2% completed the questionnaire. Of those responding, 97.5% agreed that the program increased their awareness of drinking and driving, and 79.4% agreed that the program would cause them to change their own behaviour. Determining whether or not increased knowledge and changed attitude in fact results in changed behaviour is beyond the scope of this study. Further longitudinal, quantitative evaluation of program effectiveness, based on traffic safety indices, is being undertaken.