title: Why more male pedestrians die in vehicle-pedestrian collisions than female pedestrians: a decompositional analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pedestrians account for a third of the 1.2 million traffic fatalities annually worldwide, and men are overrepresented. We examined the factors that contribute to this male-female discrepancy: walking exposure (kilometres walked per person-year), vehicle-pedestrian collision risk (number of collisions per kilometres walked) and vehicle-pedestrian collision case fatality rate (number of deaths per collision).
  
  
  METHODS
  The decomposition method quantifies the relative contributions (RCs) of individual factors to death rate ratios among groups. The male-female ratio of pedestrian death rates can be expressed as the product of three component ratios: walking exposure, collision risk and case fatality rate. Data sources included the 2008-2009 US Fatality Analysis Reporting System, General Estimates System, National Household Travel Survey and population estimates.
  
  
  METHODS
  USA.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pedestrians aged 5 years and older.
  
  
  METHODS
  Death rate per person-year, kilometres walked per person-year, collisions per kilometres walked and deaths per collision by sex.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The pedestrian death rate per person-year for men was 2.3 times that for women. This ratio of male to female rates can be expressed as the product of three component ratios: 0.995 for walking exposure, 1.191 for collision risk and 1.976 for case fatality rate. The RCs of these components were 1%, 20% and 79%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The majority of the male-female discrepancy in 2008-2009 pedestrian deaths in the US is attributed to a higher fatality per collision rate among male pedestrians.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506–9151, USA. mozhu@hsc.wvu.edu
authors.forename: Motao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Songzhu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jeffrey H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Coben
authors.forename: Gordon S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016138:Walking / Q000293:injuries*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality*; D055815:Young Adult