Health and Road Safety: Influence of Drugs Use and Health Status

In France, drugs affecting driving ability directly or by indicating at-risk diseases are classified in a 4-level standardized classification associated with a graded pictogram.

When the French authorities required this graded pictogram, they commissioned the CESIR-U1 study, a study designed to describe the use of labelled medicines by drivers involved in serious road accidents (hospitalization > 24h). This study, conducted in Bordeaux, Limoges and Toulouse, recruited 679 drivers involved in serious road accidents. When the responsibility of the driver is taken into account, it appears that the association of risk factors (alcohol, sleep, ...) and the use of labelled drugs increases this responsibility. Even though labelled medicines seemed slightly more at risk than unlabelled ones, this did not reach significance.

This conclusion is different from the conclusion of CESIR-A, a data linkage study of the police and the health insurance databases which showed a correlation between the use of grade 2 or 3 labelled medicines and driver responsibility.

This difference between CESIR-U and CESIR-A could be related to a lack of power or to the characteristics of the subjects included (mostly young men and motorcycle drivers). That is why it was thought interesting to increase the size of the sample and to include non serious road accidents (hospitalization < 24 hours) that represent around 73% of accidents.