Journal article

Publication year: 2016

Pages: 258-263

Journal: Rechtsmedizin

Volume number: 26

Issue number: 4

ISSN: 0937-9819

eISSN: 1434-5196

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00194-016-0094-1

Publisher: Springer

Abstract: 

Demographic development in Germany shows a steady proportional increase in senior citizens. The driving suitability of older people is of great social and political concern, because awareness and reactivity can be influenced by increased morbidity and the potential medication of elderly people, particularly in combination with the consumption of alcohol.

An overview of the circumstances of older road-users under the influence of alcohol should be obtained. Furthermore, the need to develop an age-adapted medical examination protocol should also be examined.

Therefore, 404 cases of drunk driving road-users aged > 70 years from the purview of the Institute of Legal Medicine at the JLU Giessen from 2009 to 2013 were evaluated in retrospect.

Moreover, other aspects were analyzed, such as blood alcohol concentration, the type of traffic participation, in addition to neurological and physiological deficits of the road-users, and the external circumstances of accidents caused by drunken driving.

Polypharmacy and multimorbidity are considered to be significant issues in the medical evaluation of older drivers under the influence of alcohol. An evaluation and if necessary adaptation of the common medical examination protocol seem useful.

Harvard Citation style: Kirsch, B. and Dettmeyer, R. (2016) Driving under the influence of alcohol. A 5-year analysis of elderly drivers aged 70 years and over (2009-2013), Rechtsmedizin, 26(4), pp. 258-263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00194-016-0094-1

APA Citation style: Kirsch, B., & Dettmeyer, R. (2016). Driving under the influence of alcohol. A 5-year analysis of elderly drivers aged 70 years and over (2009-2013). Rechtsmedizin. 26(4), 258-263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00194-016-0094-1