Résumé :
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[BDSP. Notice produite par INIST-CNRS 7ePR0xjc. Diffusion soumise à autorisation]. Objectives. In 1999, New Zealand lowered the minimum purchasing age for alcohol from 20 to 18 years. We tested the hypothesis that this increased traffic crash injuries among 15-to 19-year-olds. Methods. Poisson regression was used to compute incidence rate ratios for the after to before incidence of alcohol-involved crashes and hospitalized injuries among 18-to 19-year-olds and 15-to 17-year-old (20-to 24-year-olds were the reference). Results. Among young men, the ratio of the alcohol-involved crash rate after the law change to the period before was 12% larger (95% confidence interval [CI]=1.00,1.25) for 18-to 19-year-olds and 14% larger (95% Cl=1.01,1.30) for 15-to 17-year-olds, relative to 20-to 24-year-olds. Among young women, the equivalent ratios were 51% larger (95% CI=1.17,1.94) for 18-to 19-year-olds and 24% larger (95% CI=0.96,1.59) for 15-to 17-year-olds. A similar pattern was observed for hospitalized injuries. Conclusions. Significantly more alcohol-involved crashes occurred among 15-to 19-year-olds than would have occurred had the purchase age not been reduced to 18 years. The effect size for 18-to 19-year-olds is remarkable given the legal exceptions to the pre-1999 law and its poor enforcement.
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