Abstract Introduction Drowsy driving is impaired driving, implicated in 21% of fatal car crashes each year. Drowsy driving is a significant public health and safety concern that goes beyond individual behavior. Families play a vital role in ensuring everyone gets enough quality sleep to drive alert. Familial circumstances, including the number of children in the household, may be related to drowsy driving by parents. This study sought to document and explore the prevalence of drowsy driving in parents of children under 18-years-old. Methods National Sleep Foundation (NSF) conducted a random, nationally representative study of 1,913 US adults, including 855 parents of children under 18-years-old. The survey asked about prevalence/frequency of drowsy driving (with options ranging from never having driven drowsy to driving drowsy “most days”), and to rank 4 activities (getting enough physical activity, limiting TV time, eating a healthy diet, and getting enough sleep to drive alert) in order of importance for "keeping you and your family healthy and safe.” Descriptive statistics and tests of proportions were used to summarize prevalence and frequency of drowsy driving among parents. Results Despite “getting enough sleep to drive alert” being ranked most frequently by parents as the utmost important activity for keeping themselves and their families safe, 70% of parents reported having ever driven drowsy. The proportion of parents with one child (64%) or multiple children (72%) who reported having driven drowsy was significantly higher than the proportion of nonparents (56%; p’s .05). For frequency, the proportion of parents with multiple children reporting that they drive drowsy at least monthly (22%) was significantly higher than the proportion of non-parents (12.8%; p.05). Conclusion Drowsy driving is widespread among families with children under 18-years-old. Parents of multiple children are at the highest risk of drowsy driving, with 1 in 5 reporting driving drowsy at least monthly. Familial obligations and circumstances may put parents at higher risk of drowsy driving. However, families can be a key support system to prevent drowsy driving, through prioritizing sleep, helping educate about the dangers of drowsy driving, and encouraging family members to avoid this highly risky behavior after insufficient sleep. Support (if any)
Nielson et al. (Fri,) studied this question.