Effect of 14 Underage Drinking Laws on Youthful Deaths

描述（由申请人提供）：也许没有任何酒精安全措施比美国联邦最低法定饮酒年龄21 （MLDA 21）法更吸引研究和公众关注，或显示出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（api）数据集，并将利用来自国家酒类执法协会（NLLEA）、国家运输安全委员会（NTSB）、公路安全保险协会（IIHS）和其他来源的数据来补充这些信息，这些数据提供了14项未成年人饮酒法律法规的信息(例如持有、消费、购买、配备、服务器年龄、等)来构建一个衡量每个州对未成年人饮酒的总体控制计划的相对强度的指标。这项措施将与最近6年期间在每个州死亡分析报告系统（FARS）中涉及致命车祸的21岁以下饮酒司机相关。在本分析中，将使用结构方程模型（SEM）来识别MLDA 21相关法律的最重要组成部分以及影响未成年酒驾致命车祸的其他因素。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、人均酒精消费量、地理、种族、州经济状况、州安全带的总体使用水平、酒后驾车的逮捕率，以及其他可能影响青少年交通事故死亡的安全政策的影响。然后，判别函数分析将用于确定与有效的未成年人饮酒法律法规“强大”集群相关的州特征。这项研究的结果可以用来建议更有力、更有效的法律来减少未成年人饮酒和未成年人酒后驾车。综上所述，我们提出的研究有以下目的：(1)确定14个州关于未成年人饮酒和未成年人醉酒驾驶的法律的存在和力度与21岁以下的酒驾司机参与致命车祸之间的关系；(2)确定与未成年人强饮酒法律法规相关的国家特征。

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.