Outline of my Third Oral Presentation
The Cell Phone Studies
This is a presentation of “Is using a Cell Phone like driving Drunk,”
by Donald Redelmeier & Robert j. Tibshirani found in
Driving Lessons, Rothe,
By Jordyn Shark
Instructions for this Oral Presentations can be found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/g22-oral.htm
I. Intro: The Cell Phone as a Road Hazard
A. Positive and negative aspects of cell phone use
1.
Cells allow for releases of stress i.e. calling ahead when late
2. Anecdotes of people being distracted talking on the phone then crashing
B. Huge growth of the cell phone industry
1. Subscribers from zero to ten percent of the population in less than a decade
2. Has not accompanied a dramatic increase of collision rates
C. Advantages of studying cell phones
1. The objective record of activity that exists out side the vehicle
2. May lead to safer roads and explain bans some countries have on cell phone use
II. Previously led Studies
A. Smith 1978
1. Case control study of 498 individuals
2. Drivers with and without cell phones
3. Compared # of collisions each person had over 1yr period
4. Finding: overall frequency of traffic collisions was slightly lower among cell phone users than non-cell users
5. Favor biases at work
a. prior to 90’s the cell phone demographic was such that “owners were young intelligent,urban professionals who would otherwise be expected to have low collision rates”
B. Canete 1985
1. 305 person before and after trial
2.
Compared individuals driving record the year prior
to getting cell phone to the subsequent one with a cell phone
3. allows each person to serve as their own control thus reducing the confounding due to characteristics such as eyesight, intelligence, and personality
4. Finding: a significantly lower collision rate in the year following the purchase of a cell phone
5. Residual confounding; people’s driving might improve over time
III. Redelmeier & Tibshirani’s Cell Phone Study
A. Case-crossover study to asses if cell phones are associated with motor vehicle collisions
B. Sample
group: drivers in
C. Sample size: 5890 screened, 1064 have cell, 742 consented to having their # reviewed, 699 provided accurate phone #’s
D. Finding: all the analyses yielded a relative risk of about 4
Helpful Web Links
What Highway researchers have learned:
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/PDF/nrd-13/BentsF_doc.pdf
List of countries that ban cell phone use:
http://www.cellular-news.com/car_bans/
Should Cell Phones be illegal while driving:
http://speakout.com/activism/issue_briefs/1334b-1.html