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Is body mass index a risk factor for motor vehicle driver injury? A cohort study with prospective and retrospective
Gary Whitlock1, Robyn Norton, Taane Clark
1Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Auckland, New Zealand. gary.whitlock@ctsu.ox.ac.uk
Objective:
To investigate the association between risk of motor vehicle driver injury and body mass index (BMI).
Methods:
In a cohort study of 10 525 New Zealand men and women, BMI was assessed in 1992-1993 (baseline), and data on deaths and hospitalizations for motor vehicle driver injury were obtained by record linkage to national health databases for the period 1988-1998. Hazard ratios (HR) and CI were estimated by Cox regression.
Results:
During a mean 10.3 years of follow-up, 139 fatal and non-fatal driver injury cases occurred (85 before baseline and 54 after). A U-shaped association was observed between driver injury risk and BMI, both crudely and after adjustment for covariates, which included age, sex, driving exposure, and alcohol intake (P-values for quadratic trend /=28.7 kg/m(2); HR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.18-3.39) and lowest (<23.5 kg/m(2); HR = 2.17, 95% CI: 1.27-3.73) quartiles of BMI were twice as likely to have experienced a driver injury during the follow-up period as participants in the reference quartile (25.9-28.6 kg/m(2); HR = 1.00).
Conclusion:
Further research is needed to corroborate or refute the hypothesis that BMI is a risk factor for serious motor vehicle driver injury.
