Sex-related disparities in vehicle crash injury and hemodynamics
View abstract on PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.Female crash victims experience more severe pelvic and liver injuries and enter shock states at lower injury severities than males. This highlights a critical need for sex-equity research in vehicle safety to reduce injury disparities.
Area Of Science
- Traumatology
- Biomechanics
- Public Health
Background
- Existing research often focuses on relative risk of injury between sexes in vehicle crashes.
- Clinical data offers a more direct, injury-specific evaluation of sex disparities in vehicle safety.
Purpose Of The Study
- To evaluate trauma injury patterns in a large database to identify sex-related differences in crash injury victims.
- To assess the relationship between shock index, injury severity, and patient characteristics, including sex and age.
Main Methods
- Data from lap and shoulder belt wearing patients (age 16+) with abdominal and pelvic injuries (2018-2021) were extracted from the National Trauma Data Bank.
- Descriptive analysis included injuries, vital signs, International Classification of Disease (ICD) coding, age, and Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and Injury Severity Score (ISS).
- Multiple linear regression analyzed the relationship of shock index (SI) with ISS, sex, age, and sex*age interaction.
Main Results
- Sex, age, and ISS were strongly related to shock index across most injury regions.
- Females exhibited higher overall SI than males, even with less severe injuries.
- Females had more pelvis and liver injuries, while males had more injuries in other abdominal/pelvic regions.
Conclusions
- Female crash victims show a tendency for higher AIS severity in pelvis and liver injuries, potentially due to interactions with safety equipment.
- Females enter shock states (SI > 1.0) with lesser injury severity (ISS) than males, suggesting greater susceptibility to hemodynamic compromise.
- Findings underscore the need for vehicle crash injury research within a sex-equity framework to reduce disparities.

