Alcohol - Alcohol-related Motor Vehicle Traffic Crash (MVTC) Death

Why Is This Important?

Alcohol-related motor vehicle traffic crash (AR-MVTC) death has historically been the leading cause of alcohol-related injury death. Nonetheless, AR-MVTC deaths provide a hopeful example of a substance-related health outcome that has been successfully reduced by using a public health approach, both nationally and in New Mexico. From 1982 through 2010, in response to a wide range of policy and preventive interventions, New Mexico's alcohol-impaired motor vehicle traffic crash (AI-MVTC) fatality rate declined more dramatically than the US rate, decreasing 83% and dropping New Mexico from first to tenth among states in AI-MVTC fatalities per 100,000 population. In terms of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), New Mexico's AI-MVTC fatality rate in 2015 (0.38) was one-sixth what it was in 1982 (2.4). Furthermore, a comprehensive AR-MVTC prevention campaign in place from 2005-2009 was successful in reinitiating rate decreases that had been stalled since the late 1990s. From 2004 to 2012 New Mexico's AI-MVTC fatality rate per 100 million VMT dropped 42%. Rates increased slightly in 2014 and dropped back in 2015. (2016 data not available at the NHTSA website yet.)

Definition

Alcohol-related motor vehicle traffic crash deaths estimated based on CDC ARDI alcohol-attributable fractions (BAC>=0.10)

Data Sources

• New Mexico Death Data: Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS), Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health.
  (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/bvrhs/vrp/)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.
  (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/)
• New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
  (http://gps.unm.edu/)

How the Measure is Calculated

Other Objectives

Substance Abuse Epidemiology Report Indicator

Available Services

Doctors, nurses and other health professionals should screen all adult patients and counsel those who drink too much to drink less. This is called alcohol screening and brief intervention (A-SBI). A-SBI can reduce how much alcohol a person drinks on an occasion by 25%. A-SBI is recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the Community Preventive Services Task Force (Community Guide), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the World Health Organization (WHO). For more information on A-SBI, please the CDC vital signs website: www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/alcohol-screening-counseling/index.html

More Resources

The New Mexico Department of Health Substance Abuse Epidemiology Section has New Mexico-specific reports, resources and publications, available at: nmhealth.org/about/erd/ibeb/sap. CDC Alcohol Program has fact sheets, online tool kits, data and recently published literature, available at: www.cdc.gov/alcohol. The CDC also publishes the Prevention Status Reports (PSR), which highlight, for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the status of public health policies and practices designed to address important public health problems and concerns. The 2013 PSR for excessive alcohol use can be found at: www.cdc.gov/psr/alcohol. The Community Preventive Services Task Force reviews research and makes recommendations to help communities answer the question "what works?" Community Guide recommendations for preventing excessive alcohol consumption can be found at: www.thecommunityguide.org/alcohol.