Now, it increases the risk of dying while the leading cause; a serious accident can be added to the list.
A serious motor vehicle accident, a moderately obese driver face a greater risk of 21 per cent of the death, and a dear morbid obesity, a percentage of 56 increased risk of not surviving, according to a study published online before print in the American Journal of emergency medicine.
Dietrich Jehle, MD, Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Buffalo School of medicine and biomedical sciences and Erie County Medical Center, is the first author of the study.
"The seriousness and the injury of crash patterns depend on a complex interaction of biomechanical factors, including the slowdown of the impact of seat belt speed and the use of air pockets, type of vehicle and weight and type of impact"."said Jehle, but the effect of mass in the result of the accident has not been evaluated previously database of suitable size or controlled for some of these confounding factors. »
"Crash test dummies have saved lives and still valuable data on human bodies, how they react to accidents, but they are designed to represent the people of normal weight." "If they represent our American Society of obesity, it may be more improvements in the design of vehicles are needed that could reduce mortality."
Based on these data, Jehle suggests several changes that could save lives. "The extension of the range of adjustable seats, it could be useful, so that promote moderately obese and morbidly to buy larger vehicles with more space between the seat and steering column."
"It is also recommended that manufacturers design and test the interiors of vehicle with obese mannequins, which are not currently available, and the tests with the 50 male dummy (24.3 BMI) percentile", adding "It would improve security for one third of the population of the United States who are obese." "for Less than normal and normal weight people, seatbelts and airbags placement can also be protection."
JEHLE and his colleagues set out to investigate the relationship between the size of the body of the driver and the risk of mortality associated with the accident data analysis system of base (FAR) national mortality data analysis reports.
According to FARS, to include in the basic data should lead to an accident: "a vehicle travelling on a highway normally open to the public and should lead to the death of the occupant of a vehicle or a non-motorist." 168,049 Drivers in serious motor vehicle accidents are entered in the database, 155,584 meets the criteria for inclusion in the analysis.
The pilots have been grouped mass body index (BMI): weight in kg divided by the size in square metres, in categories below a normal, normal weight, overload weight, slightly obese, moderately obese and morbidly obese.
Between 2000 and 2005 only one or two vehicles (cars, vans, SUV, or van) have been used for the analysis of severe accidents. Considered as deaths from the accident within 30 days of the accident, such as those resulting from surgery, were also included.
In addition to all of the results, data analyzed by sex shows that moderately obese and morbidly categories, men and women drivers independently demonstrate a statistically significant increase in death compared to normal weight controls.
"The rate of obesity continues to increase, it is imperative that car models are altered to protect the obese population and shock testing, by a range of sizes of dummis should also be widely available" said Jehle.
(Source: University of Buffalo: American Journal of emergency medicine)
