Pizza, F., Contardi, S., Antognini, A. B., Zagoraiou, M., Borrotti, M., Mostacci, B., . . . Cirignotta, F. (2010). Sleep quality and motor vehicle crashes in adolescents. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 6(1), 41-5.

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Abstract

Study Objectives

Sleep-related complaints are common in adolescents, but their impact on the rate of motor vehicle crashes accidents is poorly known. We studied subjective sleep quality, driving habits, and self-reported car crashes in high-school adolescents.

Methods

Self-administered questionnaires (with items exploring driving habits) were distributed to 339 students who had a driver's license and attended 1 of 7 high schools in Bologna, Italy. Statistical analysis were performed to describe lifestyle habits, sleep quality, sleepiness, and their relationship with the binary dependent variable (presence or absence of car crashes) to identify the factors significantly affecting the probability of car crashes in a multivariate binary logistic regression model.

Results

Nineteen percent of the sample reported bad sleep, 64% complained of daytime sleepiness, and 40% reported sleepiness while driving. Eighty students (24%), 76% of which were males, reported that they had already crashed at least once, and 15% considered sleepiness to have been the main cause of their crash. As compared with adolescents who had not had a crash, those who had at least 1 previous crash reported that they more frequently used to drive (79% vs 62%), drove at night (25% vs 9%), drove while sleepy (56% vs 35%), had bad sleep (29% vs 16%), and used stimulants such as caffeinated soft drinks (32% vs 19%), tobacco (54% vs 27%), and drugs (21% vs 7%). The logistic procedure established a significant predictive role of male sex (p < 0.0001; odds ratio = 3.3), tobacco use (p < 0.0001; odds ratio = 3.2), sleepiness while driving (p = 0.010; odds ratio = 2.1), and bad sleep (p = 0.047; odds ratio = 1.9) for the crash risk.

Conclusions

Our results confirm the high prevalence of sleep-related complaints among adolescents and highlight their independent role on self-reported crash risk.

MeSH Terms
    Accidents, Traffic/statistics & numerical data*
    Adolescent
    Automobile Driving
    Chronic Disease
    Female
    Humans
    Italy/epidemiology
    Logistic Models
    Male
    Multivariate Analysis
    Prevalence
    Sleep Deprivation/epidemiology
    Sleep Wake Disorders/epidemiology*