Obesity Increases Risk of Death in Severe Vehicle Crashes

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brian
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Obesity Increases Risk of Death in Severe Vehicle Crashes

Post by brian »

Dec 2010: Obesity Increases Risk of Death in Severe Vehicle Crashes, Study Shows
  • Moderately and morbidly obese persons face many health issues -- heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, gallbladder disease and others.
    Now, increased chances of dying while driving during a severe auto accident can be added to the list.
    In a severe motor vehicle crash, a moderately obese driver faces a 21 percent increased risk of death, while the morbidly obese face a 56 percent increased risk of not surviving, according to a study posted online ahead of print in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
    The research is funded in part by a grant from the Federal Highway Administration
See the press release: Obesity Increases Risk of Death in Severe Vehicle Crashes, Study Shows
The article: Abstract
  • The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between obesity and mortality of drivers in severe motor vehicle crashes involving at least one fatality.
Basic Procedures
  • Fatalities were selected from 155 584 drivers included in the 2000-2005 Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Drivers were stratified by body mass index, confounders were adjusted for, and multiple logistic regression was used to determine the odds ratio (OR) of death in each body mass index class compared with normal weight.
Main Findings
  • The adjusted risk of death from lowest to highest, reported as the OR of death compared with normal weight with 95% confidence intervals, was as follows: (1) overweight (OR, 0.952; 0.911-0.995; P = .0293), (2) slightly obese (OR, 0.996; 0.966-1.026; P = .7758), (3) normal weight, (4) underweight (OR, 1.115; 1.035-1.201; P = .0043), (5) moderately obese (OR, 1.212; 1.128-1.302; P < .0001), and (6) morbidly obese (OR, 1.559; 1.402-1.734; P < .0001).
Principal Conclusions
  • There is an increased risk of death for moderately obese, morbidly obese, and underweight drivers and a decreased risk in overweight drivers.
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