Influence of obesity on mortality of drivers in severe motor vehicle crashes.
OBJECTIVE
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.


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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).


CONCLUSIONS
There is an increased risk of death for moderately obese, morbidly obese, and underweight drivers and a decreased risk in overweight drivers.
Department of Emergency Medicine, Erie County Medical Center, and SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA. jehle@ecmc.edu
Dietrich
D
Jehle
Seth
S
Gemme
Christopher
C
Jehle
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality*; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000401:mortality*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology