Roadside survey on alcohol and drug use among drivers in the Arctic county of Finnmark (Norway)

Abstract

The total prevalence of alcohol and drugs among the general driving population in Finnmark was low and similar to previous Norwegian roadside surveys. Illicit drugs were detected significantly more often in samples from drivers with citizenship other than Russian and Norwegian and among young male drivers.

Associations between psychoactive substance use and sensation seeking behavior among drivers in Norway

“…In the second stage, time intervals were systematically selected to cover all time periods of the week, and the third stage consisted of randomly stopping drivers in cooperation with the police to ask for participation. Further details on the sampling procedure of the roadside survey in Finnmark have been described by Jamt et al [21] and of the roadside survey in south-eastern Norway by Furuhaugen et al [19]. Participation in both surveys was voluntary and anonymous.…”

“…Based on numbers of participants in previous, comparable Norwegian roadside surveys and official statistics on traffic volume obtained from the Norwegian Public Road Administration it was estimated that 3000-5000 participants were needed to reach adequate statistical power [19,21].…”

“…Samples of oral fluid were collected using Quantisal™ Oral Fluid Collection Device (Immunalysis Corporation, Pomona, CA) [19,21]. The collection pad was placed in the mouth beside the cheek or under the tongue until the indicator turned blue (when absorption reached 1 ml of oral fluid) or until 5 min had passed.…”

“…The collection pad was placed in the mouth beside the cheek or under the tongue until the indicator turned blue (when absorption reached 1 ml of oral fluid) or until 5 min had passed. The samples were analyzed for alcohol with an automated enzymatic method [24], and for medicinal-and illicit drugs using ultra-highperformance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry detection as previously described [19,21]. ) and prevalence of psychoactive substances between the two roadside surveys was performed using contingency tables with chisquare test.…”

“…However, eight drivers were not illegible because of low age. Altogether, this resulted in a total of 8053 participating drivers; 5026 drivers from the roadside survey in south-eastern Norway and 3027 from the roadside survey in Finnmark [19,21].…”