Thursday, July 18, 2013

Sleep-Deprived Young Drivers and the Risk for Crash: The DRIVE Prospective Cohort Study

The Children's Safety Network posted a recent study on sleep-deprived teens.
Importance  Short sleep duration is common in adolescents and young adults, and short sleep duration is a risk factor for motor vehicle crash.
Objective  To assess the association between hours of sleep and the risk for motor vehicle crash, including the time of day of crash and types of crash (single, multiple vehicle, run off road, and intersection).
Exposure  Sleeping 6 or fewer hours per night.
Main Outcomes and Measures  The main outcome variable was police-reported crash. Multivariable Poisson regression models were used to investigate the role of sleep duration on the risk for crash.
Results  On average, those who reported sleeping 6 or fewer hours per night had an increased risk for crash compared with those who reported sleeping more than 6 hours (relative risk [RR], 1.21; 95% CI, 1.04-1.41). Less weekend sleep was significantly associated with an increased risk for run-off-road crashes (RR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.21-2.00). Crashes for individuals who had less sleep per night (on average and on weekends) were significantly more likely to occur between 8 pm and 6 am (RR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.11-3.13, for midnight to 5:59 am and RR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.15-2.39, for 8:00 pm to 11:59pm).
Conclusions and Relevance  Less sleep per night significantly increased the risk for crash for young drivers. Less sleep on weekend nights increased the risk for run-off-road crashes and crashes occurring in the late-night hours. This provides rationale for governments and health care providers to address sleep-related crashes among young drivers.