Milken Institute School of Public Health Poster Presentations (Marvin Center & Video)

Does Obesity Make Children More Vulnerable to Injuries When Involved in Motor Vehicle Collisions?

Poster Number

49

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

3-2016

Abstract

Background: Motor vehicle collisions (MVC) impose significant risk for morbidity and mortality on children. The impact of obesity on body injuries in children involved as passenger in a MVC is unknown.

Objective: 1.) To examine whether obesity is protective against body injury sustained in a motor vehicle collision in non-driving children not using car seats and 2.) to see what type of injury is the most frequent in obese children involved in a motor vehicle collision.

Methods: The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) produced by the Health Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) was analyzed for the years 2010 and 2011. The NEDS is a database of all-payer Emergency Room visits collected from all over the United States. We included all records of children between the ages of 3 to 14 involved in a Motor Vehicle Collision (MVC). Groups were then created demarcating between obese and non-obese children using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, (ICD-9) diagnostic codes. Each group was assessed for different types of body injury through the use of disease-specific diagnostic codes. Data was analyzed using chi square to calculate odds ratios and multivariate logistic regression to control for possible confounding factors including sex, age, income quartile, type of insurance and whether or not the MVC occurred on a weekend.

Results: There were 352,568 children ages 3-14 reported by the NEDS involved in a motor vehicle collision in 2010 and 2011, of them 474 had an ICD-9 codes for overweight or obesity. After controlling for confounders, it was found obese and overweight children were 1.564 (95% CI: 1.30-1.88) times more likely to have an injury compared to non-obese non-overweight children. Obese and overweight children were also 5.946 (95% CI: 4.652 – 7.600) times more likely to sustain two or more injuries, 11.42 times more likely (95% CI 8.38-15.54) to sustain a lower extremity injury and 4.74 (95% CI: 2.98 – 7.53) to sustain a more serious skull or face fracture compared to non-obese non-overweight children. However, obese and overweight children were more likely to be protected against concussions, 0.36 (95% CI: 0.14 – 0.92), when compared to non-obese non-overweight counterparts.

Conclusions: There was a correlation between obesity or overweight status and increased risk of injury among children involved in a MVC. Obese and overweight children were most at risk for lower extremity injuries as well as sustaining multiple injuries. Further studies should be completed to restructure the recommendations for safety restraint laws. Limitations include small sample size, prevalence of mortality, long-term complications and lack of ability to identify type of restraint child was using or if they were restrained at all.

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Open Access

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Presented at: GW Research Days 2016

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Does Obesity Make Children More Vulnerable to Injuries When Involved in Motor Vehicle Collisions?

Background: Motor vehicle collisions (MVC) impose significant risk for morbidity and mortality on children. The impact of obesity on body injuries in children involved as passenger in a MVC is unknown.

Objective: 1.) To examine whether obesity is protective against body injury sustained in a motor vehicle collision in non-driving children not using car seats and 2.) to see what type of injury is the most frequent in obese children involved in a motor vehicle collision.

Methods: The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) produced by the Health Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) was analyzed for the years 2010 and 2011. The NEDS is a database of all-payer Emergency Room visits collected from all over the United States. We included all records of children between the ages of 3 to 14 involved in a Motor Vehicle Collision (MVC). Groups were then created demarcating between obese and non-obese children using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, (ICD-9) diagnostic codes. Each group was assessed for different types of body injury through the use of disease-specific diagnostic codes. Data was analyzed using chi square to calculate odds ratios and multivariate logistic regression to control for possible confounding factors including sex, age, income quartile, type of insurance and whether or not the MVC occurred on a weekend.

Results: There were 352,568 children ages 3-14 reported by the NEDS involved in a motor vehicle collision in 2010 and 2011, of them 474 had an ICD-9 codes for overweight or obesity. After controlling for confounders, it was found obese and overweight children were 1.564 (95% CI: 1.30-1.88) times more likely to have an injury compared to non-obese non-overweight children. Obese and overweight children were also 5.946 (95% CI: 4.652 – 7.600) times more likely to sustain two or more injuries, 11.42 times more likely (95% CI 8.38-15.54) to sustain a lower extremity injury and 4.74 (95% CI: 2.98 – 7.53) to sustain a more serious skull or face fracture compared to non-obese non-overweight children. However, obese and overweight children were more likely to be protected against concussions, 0.36 (95% CI: 0.14 – 0.92), when compared to non-obese non-overweight counterparts.

Conclusions: There was a correlation between obesity or overweight status and increased risk of injury among children involved in a MVC. Obese and overweight children were most at risk for lower extremity injuries as well as sustaining multiple injuries. Further studies should be completed to restructure the recommendations for safety restraint laws. Limitations include small sample size, prevalence of mortality, long-term complications and lack of ability to identify type of restraint child was using or if they were restrained at all.