Cargando…

Randomly controlled drivers using minimally invasive sampling: assessment of drug prevalence in Western Switzerland over two time periods

BACKGROUND: According to the World Health Organization, road traffic injuries lead to 1.3 million deaths each year and represent the leading cause of death for young adults under 30 years old. The use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol, drugs and pharmaceuticals, is a well-known risk fact...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Joye, Timothée, Déglon, Julien, Donzé, Nicolas, Gilardi, Federica, Sidibé, Jonathan, Favrat, Bernard, Augsburger, Marc, Thomas, Aurélien
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9795657/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36577956
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14883-2
_version_ 1784860308243742720
author Joye, Timothée
Déglon, Julien
Donzé, Nicolas
Gilardi, Federica
Sidibé, Jonathan
Favrat, Bernard
Augsburger, Marc
Thomas, Aurélien
author_facet Joye, Timothée
Déglon, Julien
Donzé, Nicolas
Gilardi, Federica
Sidibé, Jonathan
Favrat, Bernard
Augsburger, Marc
Thomas, Aurélien
author_sort Joye, Timothée
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: According to the World Health Organization, road traffic injuries lead to 1.3 million deaths each year and represent the leading cause of death for young adults under 30 years old. The use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol, drugs and pharmaceuticals, is a well-known risk factor for road traffic injuries. Our study aims to assess the prevalence of substances consumed by drivers in western Switzerland. Such studies are pivotal to improving prevention and developing public awareness campaigns. METHODS: To assess the prevalence of psychoactive substances among drivers, roadside controls were performed in collaboration with local police, using their classical sampling procedures to detect drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol over two time periods (P1: 2006-2008, P2: 2017-2020). When impaired driving was not suspected by the police, minimally invasive sampling strategies (i.e., oral fluids during P1 and dried blood spots during P2) were performed on volunteer drivers after a road safety survey. A posteriori analyses and statistical interpretation were then performed. RESULTS: Among the 1605 drivers included in the study, 1048 volunteers provided an oral fluid sample, while 299 provided a dried blood spot sample. The percentage of drivers testing positive for at least one substance that can impact driving abilities was stable over time, with a rate of 10.5% positivity measured over both periods. Considering the different categories of substances, a slight variation was observed between both periods, with 7.6 and 6.3% of pharmaceuticals and 3.6 and 4.9% of illicit drugs for P1 and P2, respectively. Regarding the consumption of illicit drugs, the highest percentage of positivity was measured in biological fluids of drivers under the age of 35, during nights and week-ends, periods which are considered particularly prone to fatal accidents for this age group. Disturbingly, the road safety survey highlighted that drivers’ perception of the risk of getting positively controlled while driving after drug consumption is low (3.3 on a 1-to-10 scale, N = 299). CONCLUSION: The number of positive cases measured in voluntary drivers who passed the preliminary police check demonstrates the importance of systematic biofluid sampling strategies regarding driving under the influence of psychoactive substances. Although the number of fatal road accidents globally has decreased over time, the results of this study reveal the need for both better prevention and deterrent processes that could potentially reduce the risk of fatal road accidents associated with drug consumption. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-14883-2.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9795657
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97956572022-12-29 Randomly controlled drivers using minimally invasive sampling: assessment of drug prevalence in Western Switzerland over two time periods Joye, Timothée Déglon, Julien Donzé, Nicolas Gilardi, Federica Sidibé, Jonathan Favrat, Bernard Augsburger, Marc Thomas, Aurélien BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: According to the World Health Organization, road traffic injuries lead to 1.3 million deaths each year and represent the leading cause of death for young adults under 30 years old. The use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol, drugs and pharmaceuticals, is a well-known risk factor for road traffic injuries. Our study aims to assess the prevalence of substances consumed by drivers in western Switzerland. Such studies are pivotal to improving prevention and developing public awareness campaigns. METHODS: To assess the prevalence of psychoactive substances among drivers, roadside controls were performed in collaboration with local police, using their classical sampling procedures to detect drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol over two time periods (P1: 2006-2008, P2: 2017-2020). When impaired driving was not suspected by the police, minimally invasive sampling strategies (i.e., oral fluids during P1 and dried blood spots during P2) were performed on volunteer drivers after a road safety survey. A posteriori analyses and statistical interpretation were then performed. RESULTS: Among the 1605 drivers included in the study, 1048 volunteers provided an oral fluid sample, while 299 provided a dried blood spot sample. The percentage of drivers testing positive for at least one substance that can impact driving abilities was stable over time, with a rate of 10.5% positivity measured over both periods. Considering the different categories of substances, a slight variation was observed between both periods, with 7.6 and 6.3% of pharmaceuticals and 3.6 and 4.9% of illicit drugs for P1 and P2, respectively. Regarding the consumption of illicit drugs, the highest percentage of positivity was measured in biological fluids of drivers under the age of 35, during nights and week-ends, periods which are considered particularly prone to fatal accidents for this age group. Disturbingly, the road safety survey highlighted that drivers’ perception of the risk of getting positively controlled while driving after drug consumption is low (3.3 on a 1-to-10 scale, N = 299). CONCLUSION: The number of positive cases measured in voluntary drivers who passed the preliminary police check demonstrates the importance of systematic biofluid sampling strategies regarding driving under the influence of psychoactive substances. Although the number of fatal road accidents globally has decreased over time, the results of this study reveal the need for both better prevention and deterrent processes that could potentially reduce the risk of fatal road accidents associated with drug consumption. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-14883-2. BioMed Central 2022-12-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9795657/ /pubmed/36577956 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14883-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Joye, Timothée
Déglon, Julien
Donzé, Nicolas
Gilardi, Federica
Sidibé, Jonathan
Favrat, Bernard
Augsburger, Marc
Thomas, Aurélien
Randomly controlled drivers using minimally invasive sampling: assessment of drug prevalence in Western Switzerland over two time periods
title Randomly controlled drivers using minimally invasive sampling: assessment of drug prevalence in Western Switzerland over two time periods
title_full Randomly controlled drivers using minimally invasive sampling: assessment of drug prevalence in Western Switzerland over two time periods
title_fullStr Randomly controlled drivers using minimally invasive sampling: assessment of drug prevalence in Western Switzerland over two time periods
title_full_unstemmed Randomly controlled drivers using minimally invasive sampling: assessment of drug prevalence in Western Switzerland over two time periods
title_short Randomly controlled drivers using minimally invasive sampling: assessment of drug prevalence in Western Switzerland over two time periods
title_sort randomly controlled drivers using minimally invasive sampling: assessment of drug prevalence in western switzerland over two time periods
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9795657/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36577956
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14883-2
work_keys_str_mv AT joyetimothee randomlycontrolleddriversusingminimallyinvasivesamplingassessmentofdrugprevalenceinwesternswitzerlandovertwotimeperiods
AT deglonjulien randomlycontrolleddriversusingminimallyinvasivesamplingassessmentofdrugprevalenceinwesternswitzerlandovertwotimeperiods
AT donzenicolas randomlycontrolleddriversusingminimallyinvasivesamplingassessmentofdrugprevalenceinwesternswitzerlandovertwotimeperiods
AT gilardifederica randomlycontrolleddriversusingminimallyinvasivesamplingassessmentofdrugprevalenceinwesternswitzerlandovertwotimeperiods
AT sidibejonathan randomlycontrolleddriversusingminimallyinvasivesamplingassessmentofdrugprevalenceinwesternswitzerlandovertwotimeperiods
AT favratbernard randomlycontrolleddriversusingminimallyinvasivesamplingassessmentofdrugprevalenceinwesternswitzerlandovertwotimeperiods
AT augsburgermarc randomlycontrolleddriversusingminimallyinvasivesamplingassessmentofdrugprevalenceinwesternswitzerlandovertwotimeperiods
AT thomasaurelien randomlycontrolleddriversusingminimallyinvasivesamplingassessmentofdrugprevalenceinwesternswitzerlandovertwotimeperiods