Drug and Driving: A Compendium of Research Studies

Annotated Sources (cont'd)

France

40. Marquet, P., Delpla, P, Kerguelen, S., Bremond, J., Facy, F., Garnier, M., Guery, B., Lhermitte, M., Mathe, D., Pelissier, A., Renaudeau, C., Vest, and P., Seguela, J. (1998)

Prevalence of drugs of abuse in urine of drivers involved in road accidents in France: A collaborative study. Journal of Forensic Sciences 43(4): 806-811.

Overview

Case-control study of patients reporting to ER in France

Type of study, population(s) and proportion tested

296 drivers of any motorized vehicle (18-35 years old) recruited in emergency rooms, regardless of severity of injury (in France)

Comparative group made up of 278 patients (18-35 years old) admitted during the same time for non-traumatic reasons

Case-control study

Time period not mentioned

Drugs examined (threshold values for detection)
Method of testing and medium used

Urine sample

Other dependent variables
Findings (including statistical methods)

Stepwise logistic regression

In general, no significant differences between drivers and patients in cannabis prevalence (14% versus 8%, p=0.054)

Among drivers, users tended to be male (twice as many)

This difference was significant when looking at females only (adjusted for age) (8% for drivers versus 2% for patients)

Significantly higher prevalence of cannabinoids in male than in female drivers (16% versus 8%) as well as in patients (12% versus 2%)

In general, no significant differences between drivers and patients in opiate prevalence (11% versus 10%)

When looking at those who were positive for both cannabinoids and opiates, both male drivers and male patients had a significantly higher prevalence of opiates than negative-cannabinoid drivers and patients