Low educational performance is associated with drunk driving: a 31-year follow-up of the northern Finland 1966 birth cohort.

AIMS We studied the relationship between drunk driving offences, school performance and adult educational achievements. METHODS Data from the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort were linked with official criminality files and National Education registers. The cohort members were studied prospectively covering the period from pregnancy to 31 years of age. Drunk driving (one to two arrests) and recidivist drunk driving (three or more arrests) were treated as outcome variables and their relation to school performance was studied by cross-tabulation and to adult educational achievements (two levels of education) by logistic regression analysis, adjusting for parental social class and psychiatric morbidity. RESULTS Drunk drivers had a statistically significantly worse school performance compared with controls. Male cohort members who had remained at the basic educational level had an elevated risk for drunk driving [odds ratio (OR) 3.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.3-3.8]. The corresponding adjusted ORs for recidivist drunk driving and female drunk driving were 8.6 (95% CI 5.1-14.4) and 7.0 (95% CI 3.3-14.8), respectively. CONCLUSIONS These results are unlikely to be directly causal; however, educational failures seem to be part of the complex causal pathway to drunk driving and even to alcohol-related disorders.

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