Impaired driving among rural female drug-involved offenders

Abstract

Objective

Very little is known about rural female impaired drivers despite disproportionate rates of impaired driving arrests and associated traffic fatalities in rural areas. The present study examined past-year impaired driving histories and impaired driving correlates in a sample of rural female drug-involved offenders.

Methods

Female drug-involved offenders (N = 400) from 3 rural jails completed a confidential interview focused on substance use and related risk behaviors. After removing cases with missing data (n = 23), participants self-reporting past-year impaired driving (n = 254) were compared to those who did not (n = 123) on demographic characteristics, substance use, mental health, and criminal histories. Impaired drivers also reported the substances involved in their past-year impaired driving episodes.

Results

A significantly higher percentage of impaired drivers reported past-year use of 8 of the 11 substances (including alcohol) examined when compared to other drug-involved offenders. Though symptoms of major depressive and posttraumatic stress disorders were similar, significantly more impaired drivers (49.6%) reported symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder than did other drug-involved offenders (35.0%). No differences in criminal histories were found. Nearly all (94.9%) impaired drivers reported driving under the influence of drugs in the past year; less than one-fourth reported driving under the influence of alcohol. Prescription opioids were the most prevalent substance type involved in impaired driving episodes (84.6%), followed by anti-anxiety medications (40.9%). Approximately one-third of impaired drivers reported driving under the influence of methamphetamine (33.9%), marijuana (31.5%), and alcohol (30.7%) in the past year.

Conclusions

Findings indicate that rural female impaired drivers may have more extensive substance use and mental health problems than other rural female drug-involved offenders. In addition, study results suggest that a recent history of impaired driving may serve as a marker for a more extensive substance use history. Other implications include that early identification of impaired drivers in at-risk groups may be an important opportunity to prevent future traffic injuries and fatalities.

Keywords:

• Impaired driving
• rural
• women
• substance use

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This was work supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Grant R01DA033866 (Staton, PI) and by the staff and resources of the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research at the University of Kentucky. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the position of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.