While the designated driver concept took root in Scandinavia, the U. The concept endures today and is continually promulgated by a variety of proponents. When the campaign began in late , annual alcohol-related traffic fatalities stood at 23,, with no decline since ; four years into the campaign, fatalities had dropped by 25 percent. Winsten credits a combination of factors for the drop, including new laws, stricter enforcement, and the designated driver campaign.
For the past decade, the center has spearheaded a national media effort to recruit mentors for at-risk youth, referring prospective volunteers to programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters. Bush, and Barack Obama. Four respondents were excluded as they could not be contacted. Table 1 outlines the statistical distribution of the variables; none of the demographic variables differed significantly between the two groups.
The age range for the sample was 18—79 years, with a mean age of Table 1: Demographic distribution of sample.
TAFE, tertiary and further education not university level, but higher than secondary school. The mean number of intended standard drinks for those in the DD group was 5. Table 3 outlines the modes of transport that respondents from both groups reported that they would intend to use. Table 3: Responses for both groups for hypothetical vignettes.
Table 4 outlines the results of the regression analysis. Whether a respondent was a player or not was not significantly associated with intended consumption or intended time over which alcohol would be consumed Table 4. Table 4: Regression model predicting whether THSED is associated with intended consumption and intended time over which alcohol is consumed.
Regression model predicting whether THSED is associated with intended consumption and intended time over which alcohol is consumed. This is the first experimental study to examine whether a hypothetical DD program has impact on intention to consume alcohol. In keeping with previous systematic reviews Ditter et al. However, we did identify that using a strategy which promotes someone else driving home may be associated with increased amounts of alcohol consumed by passengers.
To mitigate against this risk, licensed premises that implement safe transport strategies should consider the use of additional strategies to moderate alcohol consumption that may have been inadvertently encouraged.
The findings of this study support the notion that having a DD program may reinforce social norms directed against alcohol-impaired driving Ditter et al.
It is possible that individuals in the DD group may have had a greater awareness of the need to use a mode of transport home that enabled them to arrive home safely, compared with individuals in the NDD group. It is also possible that a DD strategy may not change alcohol consumption; however, it may be helpful in creating a culture that promotes a social norm aimed at reducing alcohol-impaired driving.
In the light of this interpretation, settings where DD strategies are promoted may need to offset them with practices that also reduce the alcohol consumption of passengers, as a means of ensuring one risky behavior drink-driving is not replaced with another high-risk drinking by others.
Such responsible service of alcohol strategies could include ensuring that bar staff are trained in responsible service of alcohol RSA , and RSA practices are enforced Bryant and Williams, ; Ker and Chinnock, , restricting the times and periods alcohol is sold Duailibi et al. This latter suggestion is made because food other than snacks, when eaten while consuming alcohol, can slow down the metabolism of alcohol and therefore the amount of alcohol absorbed into the blood; it can also slow down the rate at which alcohol is consumed Loxley et al.
While this study is novel, its primary limitation is that it has used intention as an indicator of real world behavior. While intention is a strong predictor of behavior, environmental influences, habits and the prevalence of competing or opposite behaviors all moderate the extent to which intention predicts behavior Kasprzyk and Montano, This study has demonstrated that there are associations between hypothetical intention and hypothetical consumption, and intended modes of transport home and consumption in the community sports club context.
It is possible that different outcomes could be identified if the vignette used a different setting in the study such as, for example, a community festival. An RCT using a variety of hypothetical scenarios may help in better understanding the influence of different settings on behavior and is worthy of exploration.
Further limitations of the study also need to be considered. Those in the NDD group only made their choice of transport after they had indicated how many drinks they had intended to consume. Thus, it is possible that intended consumption was affected by the mode of transport home for the NDD group. In contrast, for the DD group, the mode of transport home was associated with intended consumption. Future research should look at alternative manipulations of the vignette content that is presented to the respondents.
The sampling procedure for this study did not confirm whether respondents had a driver's license. It is possible that intention to drink affects only those who have a current driver's license and therefore using only respondents who have current driver's license may enhance the validity of the findings.
Future research should give priority to assessing the impact of interventions that broadly promote safe transport strategies, not just those which promote DDs. To help validate the findings of this study, future research should explore how intentions compare with consumption and transport home last time they actually were at their club.
In conclusion, this is the first experimental study to have found that having a potential DD program in place is not associated with proxy measures of increased intended alcohol consumption. Further, we have identified that the intention of using transport where someone else drove an individual home was associated with greater intended consumption of alcohol by that individual passenger.
While the study has used a proxy for behavior, the findings provide a closer insight into the relationship between having a DD program and consumption. While DD programs in isolation may not reduce impaired driving, settings such as community sports clubs that prevent individuals from driving home after consuming alcohol need to consider the use of additional strategies to moderate consumption that may be inadvertently encouraged. Google Scholar.
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Sign In or Create an Account. Sign In. Advanced Search. Search Menu. Article Navigation. Close mobile search navigation Article Navigation. Volume Article Contents Abstract. The impact of a hypothetical designated driver program on intended alcohol-related behavior: an RCT. Rowland , Bosco C. E-mail: bosco. Oxford Academic. Luke Wolfenden. Contact us today at to get started. In the state of California, if you are arrested under suspicion of driving under the influence DUI , the arresting officer is Even first-time offenders While the results of the November 8 th elections have been divisive to say the least, many Californians have reason to rejoice Why Do It?
Legal Help for DUIs in Fresno and Central Valley While the designated driver program offers a safe alternative to drinking and driving, we realize that mistakes can still happen.
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