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Differences between male and female cyclists’ performances under the acute influence of alcohol

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Abstract

To examine the effects of alcohol regarding the fitness required to ride a bicycle, practical cycling tests, accompanied by medical examinations, were carried out at different blood alcohol concentrations. Seventy-eight persons were included in the trials (41 males, 37 females). Eighty-three evaluable trials were obtained. Men committed less coordinative driving faults with comparable blood alcohol concentrations. Single highly alcoholized men were able to safely ride their bicycle; however, each of the female test persons had at least one severe driving fault at blood alcohol levels above 1.43 g/kg. Women tended to exhibit signs of alcoholization in the medical examination reports earlier than men.

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Notes

  1. In Germany, forensic relevant blood alcohol concentrations are expressed in grams of alcohol per kilogram of blood.

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Acknowledgments

The study was funded by the German Insurance Association/German Insurers Accident Research.

Ethical standards

The experiments of this study comply with the current German laws. The study protocol was pre-approved by the ethics committee of the University Hospital Duesseldorf.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany

    Benno Hartung, Stefanie Ritz-Timme, Nona Mindiashvili & Thomas Daldrup

  2. Institute of Mathematics, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Holger Schwender

Authors
  1. Benno Hartung
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  2. Stefanie Ritz-Timme
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  3. Holger Schwender
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  4. Nona Mindiashvili
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  5. Thomas Daldrup
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benno Hartung.

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Hartung, B., Ritz-Timme, S., Schwender, H. et al. Differences between male and female cyclists’ performances under the acute influence of alcohol. Int J Legal Med 129, 1011–1020 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1182-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1182-6

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