269789 Obesity and the risk of death during traffic collisions

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Thomas M. Rice, MPH, PhD , Division of Environmental Health Sciences, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Motao Zhu, MD, MS, PhD , Dept. of Community Medicine and Injury Control Research Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
Purpose: Obesity is also known to increase morbidity and decrease quality of life. While there is a large body of research on the health consequences of obesity, few studies have looked at how obesity affects traffic collision injury risk. The goal of this study was to estimate the effect of obesity on fatality risk during severe collisions.

Methods: A matched-pair cohort study was conducted using data for years 1999-2008 from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a national fatal collision data system. Identified were 41,283 pairs of adult drivers involved in two-vehicle collisions in which the vehicles were of similar type and size. Risk ratios for death were estimated for World Health Organization categories of Body Mass Index using conditional Poisson regression.

Results: Risk ratios increased with higher BMI categories. Risk ratios were 1.21 (0.98-1.49) for BMI 30-34.9, 1.51 (1.10-2.08) BMI 35-39.9, and 1.80 (1.15-2.84) for BMI 40 or greater. Estimated BMI effects varied by gender. An elevated risk of death was observed for underweight (BMI<18.5) men (RR 1.78, 95% CI 1.01-3.14) but not for women (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.66-1.46). In addition, risk ratios for each level of obesity was greater for women than men. We found no meaningful effect modification by vehicle type, collision type, or seat belt use.

Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that passenger vehicle restraint systems as used do not adequately protect obese and very obese drivers during severe traffic collisions.

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the matched cohort study design used in this research 2. Describe the association between driver BMI and the risk of death among adult drivers involved in severe traffic collisions 3. Discuss the strengths and limitations of this study

Keywords: Motor Vehicles, Obesity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been involved in injury epidemiology for 12 or so years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

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.

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