Accident; analysis and prevention
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Safety belts protect occupants in frontal impacts by reducing occupant deceleration and preventing the occupant from hitting interior vehicle components likely to cause injury. However, occupants moving forward during the impact may contact the safety belt webbing across their chest and abdomen. We hypothesized that if the occupant loaded their knee-thigh-hip (KTH) region with enough force to result in injury to this region-it might prevent compression (and injury) of their abdomen by the safety belt. ⋯ Occupants with KTH injury were four times less likely (adjusted odds ratio=0.25, 95% CL 0.10, 0.62) to have concomitant serious intra-abdominal injury caused by the safety belt. Although safety belts save lives and prevent serious injury, some occupants may sustain serious intra-abdominal injury when the abdomen is loaded by the safety belt during a frontal impact. These results may be useful to motor vehicle manufacturers and others who design and test motor vehicle safety systems.
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An analysis of 6215 hospitalized unintentional injuries among children aged 0-14 in northwest China.
The aim of this study was to analyze the sorts and the external causes of hospitalized unintentional injuries among children aged 0-14 so as to learn the status of children's unintentional injuries in northwest China and then to give some references for the prevention. As many as 6215 abstracts of the discharged medical records of hospitalized children for unintentional injuries from 31 hospitals in northwest China from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2003 were analyzed, especially for the different external causes and sorts of injuries according to ages, genders and locations. We identified 2081 (33.5%) fractures, 1279 (20.6%) scald/burns, 1125 (18.1%) internal organ injuries and 611 (9.8%) open injuries among the 6215 hospitalized children for unintentional injuries. ⋯ The total length of stay in hospital was 106915.2 days, with a mean of 17.2 days per case. A large proportion of fall, traffic accident, and fire/explosion induced fractures, scald/burns, internal organ and encephalic injuries characterize the childhood unintentional injuries in northwest China. From the analyses of external causes, prevention strategies for different external causes should be correspondingly specific.
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Motorcycles are frequently used in middle- and low-income societies. They are often involved in crashes, and account for a noticeable percentage of fatalities secondary to crashes. Comparing motor-vehicle occupants and motorcycle riders, the present study examined the survival hazard of crash injuries with respect to road environmental factors (i.e., area, road type, and location). ⋯ Speed management initiatives account for hazardous roadway, curve alignment re-examination, and increased traffic enforcement density are suggested. Collaboration among the roadway authorities, vehicle industry, and medical systems for a timely rescue is also advised. In addition, the attention to crashes at intersections and on local roads is a promising intervention for motorcycle riders.
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Obesity is an epidemic in the United States. The relationship between traumatic injury and obesity in children is not well-studied. We hypothesized that overweight children suffer more severe injuries, different distributions of injuries and improper use of restraints in motor vehicle collisions. ⋯ We found no significant relationship between pediatric injury severity, distribution of injuries, or restraint use and being overweight. Limitations of this study were the small sample size in this database and the large number of unrestrained subjects.
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This paper presents a new method for assessing the risk of accidents associated with darkness. The method estimates the risk of accident associated with darkness in terms of an odds ratio, which is defined as follows: [(number of accidents in darkness in a given hour of the day)/(number of accidents in daylight in the same hour of the day)]/[(Number of accidents in a given comparison hour when the case hour is dark)/(Number of accidents in a given comparison hour when the case hour is in daylight)]. This estimate of the risk of accident associated with darkness does not require data on exposure, but relies on the count of accidents in the same pair of hours throughout the year. ⋯ The aim of relying on the same pair of hours throughout the year is to minimise the influence of potentially confounding factors. Estimates of the risk of injury accidents associated with darkness are developed on the basis of accident data for Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. It is found that the risk of an injury accident increases by nearly 30% in darkness in urban areas, by nearly 50% in rural areas, and by about 40% for urban and rural areas combined (adjusted estimate).