Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Advisor

Jeannette Manger

Abstract

Alcohol-related driving deaths and excessive alcohol consumption continue to rise across the United States. These trends have had a large impact on historically disadvantaged populations, such as Appalachia, being disproportionately affected. Previous literature suggests factors such as loneliness, mental distress, segregation, and immigration status amongst others may contribute to this increase in drinking. Although delineating a clear role of the nature of the impact at a community level still remains unclear. Our objective was to explore these very factors as well as to identify social and economic predictors to explain alcohol-related driving deaths and excessive drinking in Ohio between 2016 to 2023. In order to test these variables, we collected data from County Health Rankings and Roadmaps (CHR), the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the American Community Survey. Our analyses expanded to all Ohio counties and covered variables such as mental distress, income inequality, social isolation. We then analyzed the relationship between excessive drinking and alcohol-related driving deaths. Statistical tests such as paired t-tests, ANOVA, Spearman correlations and stepwise regression were used to compare variables. We found that the percentage of driving deaths related to alcohol consumption in Ohio increased from 17.355 % in 2016 to 19.001% in 2023. We found that there was no significant difference in excessive drinking between rural, partially rural, urban and Appalachian counties. We found there was no significant correlation between the segregation index and excessive drinking.

Download


Share

COinS