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The Effect of Geography and Citizen Behavior on Motor Vehicle Deaths in the United States

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  • Nicole Abaid
  • James Macinko
  • Diana Silver
  • Maurizio Porfiri

Abstract

Death due to motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) remains a leading cause of death in the US and alcohol plays a prominent role in a large proportion of these fatalities nationwide. Rates for these incidents vary widely among states and over time. Here, we explore the extent to which driving volume, alcohol consumption, legislation, political ideology, and geographical factors influence MVC deaths across states and time. We specify structural equation models for extracting associations between the factors and outcomes for MVC deaths and compute correlation functions of states’ relative geographic and political positions to elucidate the relative contribution of these factors. We find evidence that state-level variation in MVC deaths is associated with time-varying driving volume, alcohol consumption, and legislation. These relationships are modulated by state spatial proximity, whereby neighboring states are found to share similar MVC death rates over the thirty-year observation period. These results support the hypothesis that neighboring states exhibit similar risk and protective characteristics, despite differences in political ideology.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicole Abaid & James Macinko & Diana Silver & Maurizio Porfiri, 2015. "The Effect of Geography and Citizen Behavior on Motor Vehicle Deaths in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0123339
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123339
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Craig Volden, 2006. "States as Policy Laboratories: Emulating Success in the Children's Health Insurance Program," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(2), pages 294-312, April.
    2. Levy, David T. & Hyland, Andrew & Higbee, Cheryl & Remer, Lillian & Compton, Christine, 2007. "The role of public policies in reducing smoking prevalence in California: Results from the California Tobacco Policy Simulation Model," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 167-185, July.
    3. Macinko, J. & Silver, D., 2012. "Improving state health policy assessment: An agenda for measurement and analysis," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(9), pages 1697-1705.
    4. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
    5. Carpenter, Christopher S. & Stehr, Mark, 2008. "The effects of mandatory seatbelt laws on seatbelt use, motor vehicle fatalities, and crash-related injuries among youths," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 642-662, May.
    6. Roux, A.V.D., 2011. "Complex systems thinking and current impasses in health disparities research," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(9), pages 1627-1634.
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    Cited by:

    1. Clark, Duncan A. & Macinko, James & Porfiri, Maurizio, 2022. "What factors drive state firearm law adoption? An application of exponential-family random graph models," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).

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