DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERISTICS of DRIVERS PARTICIPATING in DRIVERS BEHAVIOR IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS in a COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER

In our country, the drivers who are detected drinking and driving for the second time are given a certain amount of administrative fines and their the driving licences are taken for two years. And these drivers are trained in Drivers Behavior Improvement Programs (DBIP). The aim of this study is to examine the socio-demographic characteristics and some behaviors of the drivers attending this educational programme This is a descriptive study conducted in the Kütahya Community Health Center by examining 393 DBIP course files between 2013-2017. In January-February 2018, the information from the examined files was recorded to a standard form and descriptive data were evaluated. SPSS package program was used in the analysis of the data and McNemar X2 test was performed. The mean age of 393 participants all of whom are males was 40,86 ± 9,44, 39,4% (n: 155) of them were high school graduates and over, 19,3% (n: 76) were single. It was stated that 58,3% (n: 229) of the participants had been driving for more than 10 years. The incidence of having at least one traffic accident in the last 5 years was 26,4% (n: 104). Type of traffic fines except drinking and driving were for wrong parking (10,7 %), over speed (4,8%) and red light violation (1,8%). 11,7% of the study group stated that they consume alcohol 2-4 days a week and 1,5% of them 4 days a week. Participants stated that the reasons for alcohol intake were because of financial problems (19%), disease (15,6%), divorce (11,6%), intensive workload (11,1%), job withdrawal (10%), family problem (9%), unemployment (8,8%), celebration and fun (4%). There was no statistically significant difference between the reasons of alcohol consumption, when detected drinking and driving for the first time and for the second time (p> 0.05). In the study group, the frequency of alcohol use above 2 times per week was found to be 11,7%, and financial problems took the first place among the causes of alcohol consumption. It is considered that DBIP should be given and evaluated by considering the sociodemographic characteristics of the drivers and the reasons of alcohol us