Drinking patterns and traffic casualties in Switzerland: matching survey data and police records to design preventive action.

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between drinking patterns and alcohol-related traffic casualties. STUDY DESIGN Data linkage of cross-sectional survey data on alcohol consumption with official traffic casualty records. METHODS Alcohol consumption measures for usual heavy drinking and risky single occasion drinking were derived for different time segments of the day from a 7-day drinking diary study of 747 current drinkers. Measures were correlated with official records of alcohol-related traffic casualties. RESULTS There was a high correlation between alcohol-related traffic casualties and the number of risky single occasion drinkers that consumed alcohol outside their homes (r=0.92). On average, about 50% of these drinking occasions were attributed to usual moderate drinkers. The proportion of usual heavy drinkers was lowest in the time segments with the most alcohol-related casualties. CONCLUSION Preventive countermeasures should be targeted at the general population, enforced particularly during specific periods of the week.