People Who Used Illicit Drugs Had Higher Rates of Road Traffic Accidents: a Population-Based Study in Taiwan, 2007–2016

Road traffic under the influence of drugs is an important issue of public health and social safety. We aimed to investigate the temporal trends of road traffic accidents (RTAs) involving people who used illicit drugs. A population-based retrospective study was conducted using data from the Taiwan Illicit Drug Issue Database (TIDID) and traffic accident data. We divided road users involved in RTAs during 2007–2016 into people who used nonillicit drugs and people who used illicit drugs and then calculated the rates of RTAs and fatalities. Age, sex, and driving under the influence of alcohol were considered. Poisson regression models were applied to assess possible significant trends over time for these rates. The analyses showed that people who used illicit drugs had higher rates of overall RTAs and drunk driving than people who used nonillicit drugs. While the fatalities of people who used nonillicit drugs decreased significantly (p < 0.0001) from 2007 to 2016, this trend was not observed in people who used illicit drugs (p = 0.380). Males had greater RTA rates and fatalities than females. Elderly people (60 years or older) were overrepresented among the fatalities in both people who used nonillicit drugs and people who used illicit drugs (23.68 and 122.05 age-spec. rates × 100 K population, respectively), while those 17 years or younger were overrepresented among RTAs involving people who used illicit drugs (99.76 age-spec. rates × 1 K population). Drunk driving by people who used illicit drugs was more frequent. Our results demonstrate the traffic safety issues are created by people who use illicit drugs, especially by males on both sides of the age spectrum and substantiate the influence of alcohol and drugs in RTAs.