J Korean Med Sci.  2015 Dec;30(12):1881-1888. 10.3346/jkms.2015.30.12.1881.

Preventive Effects of Seat Belt on Clinical Outcomes for Road Traffic Injuries

• Kwak BH
• Ro YS
• Shin SD
• Song KJ
• Kim YJ
• Jang DB

• KMID: 2359975
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2015.30.12.1881

Abstract

Proper seat belt use saves lives; however, the use rate decreased in Korea. This study aimed to measure the magnitude of the preventive effect of seat belt on case-fatality across drivers and passengers. We used the Emergency Department based Injury In-depth Surveillance (EDIIS) database from 17 EDs between 2011 and 2012. All of adult injured patients from road traffic injuries (RTI) in-vehicle of less than 10-seat van were eligible, excluding cases with unknown seat belt use and outcomes. Primary and secondary endpoints were in-hospital mortality and intracranial injury. We calculated adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of seat belt use and driving status for study outcomes adjusting for potential confounders. Among 23,698 eligible patients, 15,304 (64.6%) wore seat belts. Driver, middle aged (30-44 yr), male, daytime injured patients were more likely to use seat belts (all P < 0.001). In terms of clinical outcome, no seat belt group had higher proportions of case-fatality and intracranial injury compared to seat belt group (both P < 0.001). Compared to seat belt group, AORs (95% CIs) of no seat belt group were 10.43 (7.75-14.04) for case-fatality and 2.68 (2.25-3.19) for intracranial injury respectively. In the interaction model, AORs (95% CIs) of no seat belt use for case-fatality were 11.71 (8.45-16.22) in drivers and 5.52 (2.83-14.76) in non-driving passengers, respectively. Wearing seat belt has significantly preventive effects on case-fatality and intracranial injury. Public health efforts to increase seat belt use are needed to reduce health burden from RTIs.

Keyword

Mortality; Accident Prevention; Motor Vehicles; Seat Belts

MeSH Terms

Accidents, Traffic/mortality/*prevention & control
Adult
Aged
Craniocerebral Trauma/prevention & control
Databases, Factual
Emergency Service, Hospital
Female
Humans
Logistic Models
Male
Middle Aged
Motor Vehicles
Odds Ratio
Republic of Korea/epidemiology
Seat Belts/*utilization
Young Adult

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Study population flow. ED, emergency department.

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