Seatbelt Compliance Among Morbidly Obese versus Non-Obese Patients Suffering Severe Blunt Trauma in Mississippi

摘要

We describe the preliminary findings of seatbelt compliance among severely injured blunt trauma patients involved in motor vehicle crashes in Mississippi. Stratification of the sample size of 1,405 patients included obese versus the non-obese patients with sub-stratification of weight classes to include normal weight, overweight, obese and morbidly obese. An overview of the design of the study is included. The results demonstrate no significant difference between the numbers of restrained and unrestrained obese patients compared to their normal weight counterparts. Our findings suggest unrestrained patients regardless of weight class had higher ISS than restrained individuals. The data for Mississippi is similar to those reported nationally. Interestingly, we observed the injury severity scores in the restrained obese and morbidly obese patients were higher than the unrestrained motorists within the same weight cohort. This may reflect less movement within the vehicle resulting in less trauma.