Fat man crashing

25 June 2008

The ACEP annual meeting is closely followed by that of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, and they provide me with a listing of all the abstracts to be presented there as well.  One studied fatality rates of drivers based on BMI.  While I only have an abstract and cannot comment on how well the study was done, the conclusion was that overweight drivers have the lowest death rates, slightly obese (BMI 30-35) had a death rate indistinguishable from normal-weight drivers, and the more severely obese people had higher death rates.

The kicker in all of this was not the findings but the study title:  “The Influence of Obesity on Mortality of Drivers in Severe Motor Vehicle Crashes:  Does It Help to Bring Your Own Airbag?”



Leave a Reply