The association between alcohol restriction policies and vehicle-related mortality in Cali, Colombia, 1998-2008

Mena, J., Sánchez, Á., Gutiérrez, M., Puyana, J., & Suffoleto, B. (2014). The association between alcohol restriction policies and vehicle-related mortality in Cali, Colombia, 1998-2008. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 3(2), 149-158. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v3i2.157Aims: To determine whether the implementation of alcohol control policies was associated with changes in the incidence of road traffic deaths.Design: Ecologic study conducted using an interrupted time series analysis. Full restrictive polices banned alcohol between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Most restrictive polices prohibited alcohol between 1 a.m. and 10 a.m. Restrictive policies prohibited alcohol between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. Moderately restrictive policies banned alcohol between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m. Lax policies prohibited alcohol between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m.Setting: We used data of road traffic mortality in the population of Cali, Colombia from 1998 to 2008.Participants: The population of Cali in 2008 was 2,184,753 inhabitants; 47% were male.Measures: Aggregated daily counts of road traffic deaths. Restrictive policies were compared with lax policies to estimate the effect of reducing hours of alcohol availability using multiple negative binomial regressions.Findings: There was a decreased risk of road traffic mortality in periods when moderately restrictive policies were in effect (IRR = 0.84, 95% CI 0.72–0.97, p = 0.019). There was an even lower risk of road traffic deaths in periods when most restrictive policies were in effect (IRR = 0.70, 95% CI 0.58–0.85, p < 0.001). In motorcyclists, most restrictive (IRR 0.55, 95% CI 0.38–0.81, p = 0.002) and full restrictive policies (IRR 0.52, 95% CI 0.29–0.94, p = 0.032) were associated with decreased risk of mortality.Conclusions: Our findings support more restrictive alcohol control policies to reduce road traffic mortality. Specifically, reducing the time of alcohol availability was associated with a decrease in road traffic death rates.