Evolution of the sex gap in car-driving exposure in Spain from 1993 to 2020: An age-period-cohort analysis

Abstract

This study aims to describe the effects of period, age and birth cohort on the evolution of the underrepresentation of women in car-driving exposure from 1993 to 2020 in Spain. We obtained the annual crude and age-adjusted differences between the proportion of females in the Spanish general population (aged 18 to 98) and the same proportion in the Spanish population of actual car drivers (estimated through a quasi-induced exposure approach from the innocent car drivers involved in crashes between two or more vehicles). An ageperiod-cohort analysis was applied to these differences, aggregated into four-year bands. The underrepresentation of women decreased by 64.8 % between 1993 and 2018. The analysis revealed independent effects of driver age, birth cohort, and study period on women under-representation. Regarding age, the underrepresentation decreased up to 42–45 years, and then increased again, peaking at older ages. Underrepresentation increased from the oldest birth cohort (1895–1918) to the 1948–1954 cohort, then decreased, reaching a minimum in the 1988–1994 age group. Although women under-representation among actual car drivers has decreased from 1993 to 2020, the stagnation of this trend in recent calendar years and birth cohorts suggests that further efforts should be made to address gender inequalities.