Risk Perceptions of Cellphone Use While Driving: Results from a Delphi Survey.

Motao Zhu,Kimberly Rauscher,Jing Feng,Toni Rudisill,Danielle Davidov

doi:10.3390/ijerph15061074

Abstract

Cellphone use while driving has been recognized as a growing and important public health issue by the World Health Organization and U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Surveys typically collect data on overall texting while driving, but do not differentiate between various forms of cellphone use. This study sought to improve the survey indicators when monitoring cellphone use among young drivers. Experts and young drivers were recruited to propose behavioral indicators (cellphone use while driving behaviors) and consequential indicators (safety consequences of cellphone use while driving) in 2016. Subsequently, experts and young drivers selected the top indicators using the Delphi survey method. We enrolled 22 experts with published articles on cellphone use while driving nationally, and seven young drivers who were freshmen at a state university. Sending a text or e-mail on a handheld phone was picked as the top behavioral indicator by both groups. However, young drivers chose playing music on a handheld phone as the second most important behavioral indicator, which was overlooked by experts. Injury/death and collision were the top two consequential indicators. Experts and young drivers identified the important survey indicators to monitor cellphone use while driving.

Highlights

As a major source of morbidity and mortality worldwide, motor vehicle crashes contribute to approximately 20–50 million injuries and 1.2 million deaths annually [1]
Four out of seven young drivers were female, and they were all aged 18–20. We summarized their responses into 20 unique behavioral indicators and 17 unique consequential indicators of cellphone use while driving (Table 1)
There were similarities in the indicators selected among both groups; playing music accounted for 14% of the young drivers’ selections for the five most important behavioral indicators, while none of the experts had this on their lists

Summary

Introduction

As a major source of morbidity and mortality worldwide, motor vehicle crashes contribute to approximately 20–50 million injuries and 1.2 million deaths annually [1]. States (USA)) [2,3,4,5] Contributing to these crashes is distracted driving, especially cellphone use, which has been recognized as a growing and important public health issue by the World Health. Epidemiologic studies have clearly established that cellphone use increases a driver’s crash risk [8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Visual distraction off the road is critical in explaining the risks associated with texting and any other cellphone activities [10,15,16,17]. Sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of

Methods

Results

Conclusion