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Abstract #149321

Elisa R. Braver, PhD¹, Joseph Kufera, MA², Melvin Alexander, MSPH², Marge Scerbo, MS², Karen Volpini², Joseph Lloyd², and George Bahouth, DSc³. (1) Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine/National Study Center for Trauma & EMS, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 701 W. Pratt St., Rm. 526, Baltimore, MD 21201, 410-328-7491, ebraver@som.umaryland.edu, (2) National Study Center for Trauma & EMS, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 701 W. Pratt St., Rm. 526, Baltimore, MD 21201, (3) Public Services Research Institute, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 11720 Beltsville Drive, Calverton, MD 20705

Automobile manufacturers introduced a variety of vehicle safety technologies during the past 20 years, including frontal air bags, side air bags, electronic stability control, antilock brakes, seat belt pretensioners, and daytime running lights. Unlike drugs and medical devices, whose efficacy is tested in randomized controlled clinical trials before being approved for patient use, new vehicle safety technologies are installed in vehicles in the absence of controlled intervention trials. Automakers perform crash tests using instrumented dummies and other tests, but experiments do not necessarily replicate actual driving conditions. To determine whether vehicle safety technology works as intended, real-world crash and fatality data must be analyzed to compare the incidence of deaths, non-fatal injuries, or crashes in vehicles with and without the technology. Redesigned frontal air bags have been controversial: although there is consistent evidence that fewer children are being killed by newer airbags, some fear these redesigns are compromising protection of large unbelted occupants, primarily men. Using examples from studies of newer frontal air bags, study designs for evaluation of new technology, together with their strengths and drawbacks, will be discussed. Findings concerning newer air bag designs will be presented from unpublished and published analyses of matched-pair cohorts, deaths per registered vehicle, deaths per crash-involved occupant, and non-fatal injuries in towed vehicles. Our research sheds light on the question of whether newer air bags are providing equivalent or improved protection to drivers and right-front passengers, including unbelted men, relative to first-generation air bags.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about the databases and study designs available for evaluation of motor vehicle safety technologies.
• Understand the strengths and limitations of different data sources and study designs used for safety equipment evaluation.
• Become familiar with the findings of studies of evolving frontal airbag designs based on a variety of study designs and data sources.

Keywords: Motor Vehicles, Injury Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? Yes

Name of Organization	Clinical/Research Area	Type of relationship
Alliance of Autuomotive Manufacturers funded Blue Ribbon Panel (sponsor of research)	vehicle air bags	Independent Contractor (contracted research and clinical trials)

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.