Alcohol consumption for simulated driving performance: A systematic review

Abstract

Purpose: Alcohol consumption can lead to risky driving and increase the frequency of traffic accidents, injuries and mortalities. The main purpose of our study was to compare simulated driving performance between two groups of drivers, one consumed alcohol and the other not consumed, using a systematic review.

Methods: In this systematic review, electronic resources and databases including Medline via Ovid SP, EMBASE via Ovid SP, PsycINFO via Ovid SP, PubMed, Scopus, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINHAL) via EBSCOhost were comprehensively and systematically searched. The randomized controlled clinical trials that compared simulated driving performance between two groups of drivers, one consumed alcohol and the other not consumed, were included. Lane position standard deviation (LPSD), mean of lane position deviation (MLPD), speed, mean of speed deviation (MSD), standard deviation of speed deviation (SDSD), number of accidents (NA) and line crossing (LC) were considered as the main parameters evaluating outcomes. After title and abstract screening, the articles were enrolled for data extraction and they were evaluated for risk of biases.

Results: Thirteen papers were included in our qualitative synthesis. All included papers were classified as high risk of biases. Alcohol consumption mostly deteriorated the following performance outcomes in descending order: SDSD, LPSD, speed, MLPD, LC and NA. Our systematic review had troublesome heterogeneity.

Conclusion: Alcohol consumption may decrease simulated driving performance in alcohol consumed people compared with non-alcohol consumed people via changes in SDSD, LPSD, speed, MLPD, LC and NA. More well-designed randomized controlled clinical trials are recommended.

Keywords: Alcohol abstinence; Alcohol drinking; Alcohol-related disorders; Automobile driving; Computer simulation.