Article Text
Abstract
Objective: To compare the fatal and non-fatal crash injury risk for children in minivans compared with midsize and large sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
Design: Three large population-based sources of US crash data were used—a nationwide cohort of sampled police-reported crashes (NASS-CDS) along with a census of fatal crashes (FARS), plus a large child crash surveillance system, Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS)—collected in 16 states via insurance claim records and validated telephone survey. Each included: 2000–2006 data, occupants aged 0–15 years, traveling in minivan or (midsize/large) SUV, model year 1998–2007. Outcome of interest was parent/driver report of non-fatal injury (Abbreviated Injury Scale scores of 2 or higher) in PCPS and fatal injury in NASS-CDS/FARS.
Results: Compared with children riding in SUVs, those in minivans experienced a similar crude reduction in the relative risk of non-fatal injury (PCPS: unadjusted odds ratio (OR) = 0.55) and fatality (NASS-CDS/FARS cohort: unadjusted OR = 0.58). In PCPS, this reduction in injury risk changed little after adjustment for child, driver, and vehicle factors (adjusted OR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.82). Lower fatality risk in the NASS-CDS/FARS cohort was partially explained by the same factors (adjusted OR = 0.76, 95% CI 0.51 to 1.13).
Conclusions: There may be important safety differences in vehicles during a crash that lead to fewer non-fatal injuries to child occupants of minivans compared with SUVs.
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Footnotes
Competing interests: None.