title: Do seat belts and air bags reduce mortality and injury severity after car accidents?
abstract: We studied National Trauma Data Bank data to determine the effectiveness of car safety devices in reducing mortality and injury severity in 184,992 patients between 1988 and 2004. Safety device variables were seat belt used plus air bag deployed; only seat belt used; only air bag deployed; and, as explicitly coded, no device used. Overall mortality was 4.17%. Compared with the no-device group, the seat-belt-plus-air-bag group had a 67% reduction in mortality (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.33; 99% confidence interval [CI], 0.28-0.39), the seatbelt- only group had a 51% mortality reduction (AOR, 0.49; 99% CI, 0.45-0.52), and the air-bag-only group had a 32% mortality reduction (AOR, 0.68, 99% CI, 0.57-0.80). Injury Severity Scores showed a similar pattern.
authors: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire 03756, USA.
authors: Justin S
authors: JS
authors: Cummins
authors: Kenneth J
authors: KJ
authors: Koval
authors: Robert V
authors: RV
authors: Cantu
authors: Kevin F
authors: KF
authors: Spratt
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017278:Air Bags / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012622:Seat Belts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality* / Q000517:prevention & control; D055815:Young Adult