Many attempts have been made to examine the drinking habits of drinking drivers in order to gain insight into their behaviour and to design appropriate interventions. These studies have failed to characterize drinking patterns adequately. Thus, meaningful differences in the probability of alcohol-related problems as a function of drinking problems are often obscured. This paper will describe a method of measuring drinking patterns along two dimensions - drinking frequency (the number of occasions on which alcohol is consumed) and continuation (the probability that the drinker will go on to drink more once drinking is initiated). The two dimensions of drinking patterns are shown to be independent and to be differentially related to characteristics of a population of drinking drivers. Patterns of drinking described by the dimensions are also differentially associated with the probability of alcohol-related problems. (A)
Abstract