Mortality reduction with air bag and seat belt use in head-on passenger car collisions

• Published in: American journal of epidemiology 2001-02, Vol.153 (3), p.219-224
• Main Authors: CRANDALL, Cameron S, OLSON, Lenora M, SKLAR, David P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accidents, Traffic - mortality; Adult; Aged; Air Bags - statistics & numerical data; Applied physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology); Female; Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology; Humans; Injuries of the nervous system and the skull. Diseases due to physical agents; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Odds Ratio; Regression Analysis; Seat Belts - statistics & numerical data; Sex Distribution; Transports. Aerospace. Diving. Altitude; Traumas. Diseases due to physical agents; United States - epidemiology
• ISSN: 0002-9262; 1476-6256
• DOI: 10.1093/aje/153.3.219

To assess the efficacy of occupant protection systems, the authors measured the mortality reduction associated with air bag deployment and seat belt use for drivers involved in head-on passenger car collisions in the United States. They used a matched case-control design of all head-on collisions involving two passenger cars reported to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System in 1992-1997, and driver mortality differences between the paired crash vehicles for air bag deployment and seat belt use were measured with matched-pair odds ratios. Conditional logistic regression was used to adjust for multiple effects. There were 9,859 head-on collisions involving 19,718 passenger cars and drivers. Air bag deployment reduced mortality 63% (crude odds ratio (OR) = 0.37, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.32, 0.42), while lap-shoulder belt use reduced mortality 72% (OR = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.25, 0.31). In a conditional logistic model that adjusted for vehicle (rollover, weight, age) and driver (age, sex) factors, air bags (OR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.58, 0.87) and any combination of seat belts (OR = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.22, 0.29) were both associated with reduced mortality. Combined air bag and seat belt use reduced mortality by more than 80% (OR = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.13, 0.25). Thus, this study confirms the independent effect of air bags and seat belts in reducing mortality.