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Which
gender is more likely to drive after drinking?
Introduction
Last year a student from my high school
was killed in a drunk driving accident. As shocking as the death was for
many students, people still continued to drive while intoxicated. This
year two of my close friends received DUI’s and numerous people I have
encountered have also been convicted of Driving Under the Influence. Working
at a local bar, it is very seldom that I see a person choosing to remain
sober because they “have to drive”, and I began to wonder which gender
was more likely to drive after consuming alcohol.
I hypothesize that men are more likely
to drive after consuming alcoholic beverages than women. I have decided
this for several reasons, the primary one being that when on a date, usually
the male drives.
Research
I began my research on the Internet, and
found several very useful sights. MADD (mothers against drunk driving)
had some fairly new statistics regarding alcohol consumption and driving.
I also visited the National Clearinghouse for Drugs and Alcohol, and the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. While reviewing some
statistics regarding fatal accidents related to alcohol, I noticed that
California had a very high number of deaths-second only to Texas (this
number did not reflect the percentage of the population-with this in mind,
Nevada and Texas had the largest percents). With this in mind I investigated
the current laws regarding alcohol consumption and driving.
Currently, the law in California declares
a person to be legally intoxicated if their blood alcohol content is .08%
or greater (this law of course is different for minors). The U.S. Department
of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services define
a standard drink as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces
of 80-proof distilled spirits.
Method
I decided to Survey 50 people, 25 men
and 25 women. Although laws prohibit people under 21 from consuming alcohol,
I chose to survey people 16 years and older simply because I know that
many minors do drink and drive. In order to get a more representative sample,
I decided not to survey at CSUSM but at the mall where my sample population
would consist of people other than students. Before handing people the
survey I asked them two simple questions: Are you a licensed driver? and
Do you consume alcoholic beverages? To those that answered yes to both
questions, I passed out the following survey:
1. Male or Female
2. Age
3. When you drink, on average, how many
alcoholic beverages do you consume?
Please use the following scale:
1 drink= 1.5 oz. Of 80-proof liquor
1 drink= 1 beer
1 drink= 5 oz. of wine
4. How many beverages must you consume
to feel ‘drunk?’
5. Do you drive after consuming alcoholic
beverages (please be honest)?
6. Would you drive after consuming: 1
drink?
2 drinks?
3 drinks?
4 drinks?
5 drinks?
More than 5 drinks?
7. Have you ever been convicted of DUI?
Results
Using the information from my surveys,
I have come to the conclusion that men are more likely to drive after consuming
alcoholic beverages. Of the males surveyed, 84% said they would drive after
consuming alcoholic beverages where 72% of females said they would. The
gap between these amounts changed significantly when the subjects responded
to question 5. After two drinks, the percentage of men who said they would
drive remained the same, the percentage of females declined-68% said they
would drive. The number of men who said they would drive after consuming
three alcoholic beverages declined by 4% where the number of females who
said they would drive decreased to 64%. It is here that my data changed
significantly. The number of men who said they would drive after consuming
four alcoholic beverages decreased by 20% and the number of females who
said they would drive after that many decreased by 32%. Finally, 12% of
men said they would drive after 5 or more drinks where only 4% of women
stated that they would drive.
Of the four men who stated that they would
not drive after consuming alcoholic beverages, 2 had previously received
DUI’s while only 1 of the 7 women who said they would not drive after consuming
alcoholic beverages had received a DUI. The following pages are my results
in chart format.
Reflection
Viewing my results, I realize that I have
not taken into account the different physiological effects of alcohol.
Women become intoxicated after drinking smaller quantities of alcohol than
are needed to produce intoxication in men. This can be explained by the
fact that women have lower total body water content than men of comparable
size. After alcohol is consumed, it diffuses uniformly into all body water,
both inside and outside cells. Because of their smaller quantity of body
water, women achieve higher concentration of alcohol in their blood than
men after drinking equivalent amounts of alcohol.
As one person performing research, there
are many aspects that I have neglected. If I had the means with which to
do an extensive study, I would not rely on data from self-report, as many
people may understate the amount of alcohol consumed for social acceptance.
Instead, I would carefully monitor the actual intake of each subject over
an extended period of time.
