Buffalo State College's Center for Health and Social Research has won a five-year, $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service to study DWI offenders.



The study will focus on the health status of the DWI population, examining liver function and general health status, as well as the incidence of viral hepatitis C and the lifetime association between drinking and trauma.



"The results of this study may encourage the criminal justice system and drinking-driver intervention programs to assess and treat the entire spectrum of mental and physical health problems among offenders," William Wieczorek, director of the center and the study's principal investigator, said. Wieczorek explained that no data are available on the prevalence of hepatitis C in the DWI population, and that although trauma is a known predictor of an alcohol diagnosis, no studies of the frequency of trauma and its association with drinking pattern have been conducted with DWI offenders.



"For many DWI offenders, especially repeat offenders, broad interventions are necessary to change highly ingrained unhealthy lifestyles associated with a variety of risky behaviors," he added. Senior research scientist Thomas Nochajski will serve as co-principal investigator, and research scientist Kelly Marczynski will manage day-to-day operations of the project.



Nationwide, more than 1 million people are charged with DWI each year, and one out of four alcohol-related deaths is associated with DWI. The Buffalo State study will involve 1,500 first-time and repeat offenders in Erie County and look at the ways in which the two groups differ in a number of aspects, such as health status and how drinking styles are associated with injury.



Wieczorek pointed out that repeat DWI offenders (about one-third of the DWI population) are known to have higher rates of alcohol diagnoses, drug use, other criminal behavior and trauma than the first-offender population. He said alcohol affects health status in several ways: through a direct physiological effect on organs such as the liver, through psychomotor impairment that leads to accidental trauma, through psychosocial paths through high-risk behaviors and through environmental contexts such as jails or drinking locations and practices that result in exposure to health risk.



The Buffalo State study will examine liver dysfunction and hepatitis C among DWI offenders, as well as factors associated with the general health status of DWI offenders and those associated with traumatic injuries among DWI offenders.



Wieczorek said the study will provide insight into the role of heavy alcohol consumption in public health problems and has the potential to be used to improve policy and the health of offenders and the general population.