Effect of 14 Underage Drinking Laws on Youthful Deaths

描述(由申请人提供)：也许没有哪项酒精安全措施比美国联邦最低法定饮酒年龄21岁(MLDA 21)更吸引了研究和公众的关注，也没有更一致的证据证明其有效性。这项拟议的研究将利用NIAAA酒精政策信息系统(APIs)数据集，并将使用来自国家酒类执法协会(NLLEA)、国家运输安全委员会(NTSB)、公路安全保险研究所(IIHS)和其他来源的数据来增强该信息，这些来源提供了14项未成年人饮酒法律和法规的信息(例如，拥有、消费、购买、配备、服务器年龄等)。构建每个州对未成年人饮酒的总体控制程序的相对强度的衡量标准。这项措施将与最近6年内每个州死亡分析报告系统(FARS)涉及的21名未成年酒后驾车者有关。在这项分析中，将使用结构方程建模(SEM)来确定MLDA 21相关法律中最重要的组成部分，以及在致命车祸中影响未成年饮酒司机的其他因素。SEM分析将考虑每个州的因素，如21岁以下司机的人口、车辆行驶里程、人均酒精消费、地理、种族、州经济状况、州安全带总体使用水平、酒后驾车逮捕率(DUI)以及其他可能影响青少年交通死亡的安全政策的影响。然后，将使用判别函数分析来确定与有效的未成年人饮酒法律和法规的“强大”集群相关联的州特征。这项研究的结果可以用来建议更强有力和更有效的法律，以减少未成年人饮酒和未成年人酒后驾车。总而言之，我们拟议的研究有以下目的：(1)确定与未成年人饮酒和未成年人受损驾驶有关的14个州法律的存在和力度与21岁以下饮酒司机发生致命车祸之间的关系；以及(2)确定与强有力的未成年人饮酒法律和法规相关的州特征。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Perhaps no alcohol safety measure has attracted more research and public attention or shown more consistent evidence for its effectiveness than the federal minimum legal drinking age 21 (MLDA 21) law in the United States. The proposed study will make use of the NIAAA Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS) data set and will augment that information with data from the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association (NLLEA), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and other sources that provide information on 14 underage drinking laws and regulations (e.g. possession, consumption, purchase, furnishing, age of servers, etc.) to construct a measure of the relative strength of each state's overall control program for underage drinking. This measure will then be related to underage 21 drinking drivers involved in fatal crashes in each state from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for the most recent 6 year period. In this analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used to identify the most important components of MLDA 21-related laws and the other factors affecting underage drinking drivers in fatal crashes. The SEM analysis will account for factors in each state such as the population of drivers younger than age 21, vehicle miles of travel, per capita alcohol consumption, geography, ethnicity, status of the state economy, overall state safety belt usage levels, arrest rates for driving under the influence (DUI), and the impact of other safety policies that could affect youth traffic fatalities. Discriminate function analysis will then be used to determine the state characteristics which are associated with a "strong" cluster of effective underage drinking laws and regulations. The results from this research can be used to recommend stronger and more effective laws to reduce underage drinking and underage drinking and driving. In summary, our proposed research has the following aims: (1) determine the relationship between the presence and strength of 14 state laws relating to underage drinking and to underage impaired driving to the involvement of drinking drivers under age 21 in fatal crashes; and (2) determine the state characteristics which are associated with strong underage drinking laws and regulations.