Table 3.
Studies of Racial/Ethnic Differences in Alcohol-attributable Motor Vehicle Crash Morbidity and Mortality (Drivers, Occupants, and Pedestrians) in the United States
| First Author, Year (Reference No.) | Injurious Outcome | Data Source | Alcohol Assessment | Year(s) | Racial/Ethnic Groups Examined | Principal Findings |
| Campos-Outcalt, 1997 (22) | MVC fatality | FARS (Arizona) | BAC or police observation | 1979–1988 | American Indian vs. all other races/ethnicities | Stratified by gender and urbanicity, American Indians had at least 4 times the alcohol-attributable crash fatality rate as all others. Highest relative risk was for urban males (rate among American Indians was 38.7 per 100,000 compared with 7.24 for others, relative risk = 5.3) |
| Popkin, 1993 (27) | MVC | North Carolina traffic accident files, driver history file, and medical examiner files | BAC | 1980–1988 | White and nonwhite | MVC rate was 1.1 per 100 licensed drivers among nonwhite males, 0.5 for white males. No difference for females. |
| Sutocky, 1993 (12) | MVC fatality | California death statistical master file from the California vital statistics | Estimated alcohol-attributable based on ARDI | 1980–1989 | White, black, Hispanic, “other” | Hispanics had the highest rate of alcohol-attributable MVC (9.16 per 100,000), followed by white (8.15), black, (8.02), and other (5.4). |
| Voas, 2000 (20) | MVC fatality | FARS (national) | BAC (directly recorded or imputed) | 1990–1994 | White American, black American, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic American | The proportion of MVC fatalities that were alcohol related was highest among American Indians (68.1%), followed by non-Hispanic blacks (45.2%), non-Hispanic whites (44.2%), and Asians (28.2%), and it varied for Hispanics (highest was 54.6% for Mexicans and lowest was 36.6% for Cubans). |
| Voas, 2000 (19) | MVC fatality, passenger children | FARS (national) | BAC (directly recorded or imputed) | 1990–1994 | White American, black American, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic American | Among child passenger fatalities, 42.9% of Native American children who died did so with an alcohol-positive male driver, followed by Hispanic (26.9%), African American (25.9%), and white American (11.6%). |
| Campos-Outcalt, 2002 (23) | Pedestrian fatalities from MVC | FARS (Arizona) | BAC or police observation | 1990–1996 | Non-Hispanic white, American Indian, Hispanic, African American | American Indians had the highest rate of alcohol-related pedestrian fatality (3.43 per 100,000), followed by Hispanic (1.04), African American (0.87), and non-Hispanic white (0.57). |
| Campos-Outcalt, 2003 (24) | MVC fatality | FARS (Arizona) | BAC or police observation | 1990–1996 | Non-Hispanic white, American Indian, Hispanic, African American | Blacks (0.39 per 100,000) and Hispanics (0.66) had a lower rate of alcohol-related MVC fatality compared with whites (1.01); rate among American Indians (9.56) was more than 9 times that of whites. |
| Voas, 2002 (18) | MVC fatality (drivers and passenger children) | FARS (national) | BAC (directly recorded or imputed) | 1990–1996 | White American, black American, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic American | Drivers of black, Hispanic, and Native-American fatally injured children were more likely to be BAC positive compared with whites; Asian/Pacific Islander were less likely. Control for socioeconomic position diminished but did not entirely account for differences. |
| Harper, 2000 (25) | MVC fatality | FARS (Colorado) | BAC or police observation | 1991–1995 | Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites | 61% of Hispanic drivers fatally injured in MVCs were legally intoxicated (BAC >0.1) compared with 31% of non-Hispanic white drivers. |
| Abdel-Aty, 2000 (28) | MVC | Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles | BAC or police observation | 1994–1995 | White, black, Hispanic | From age 25 to 34 years, white drivers had a higher rate of alcohol-related accident involvement than nonwhite drivers (4.2 accidents per 1,000 people) did; after age 55 years, nonwhite drivers had a higher rate of alcohol-related accident involvement than white drivers did. Whites had the highest accident proportions for driving under the influence (7.0%), followed by Hispanics (6.4%); blacks had the lowest proportion (3.7%). |
| Braver, 2003 (21) | MVC fatality | FARS (national) | BAC | 1995 | Non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, Hispanic | Fatally injured Hispanic men were most likely to have high BAC (59%), followed by non-Hispanic white men (51%) and non-Hispanic black men (47%). The increase among Hispanic men was accounted for by socioeconomic position. |
| Stahre, 2010 (26) | MVC fatality | California death statistical master file from the California vital statistics | Estimated alcohol-attributable based on ARDI | 2006 | White, black/African American, Asian, or “other”; Hispanic ethnicity recorded separately | “Other” category had the highest rate of alcohol-attributable MVC (92.6 per 100,000), followed by white (43.2), black (43.0), Hispanic (18.3), and Asian (13.7). |
Abbreviations: ARDI, Alcohol-Related Disease Impact; BAC, blood alcohol content; FARS, Fatality Analysis Reporting System; MVC, motor vehicle crash.