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RESEARCH LETTERS
Misclassification of seat belt use
  1. P Cummings,
  2. F P Rivara
  1. Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, 325 Ninth Ave, Box 359960, Seattle, WA 98104-2499, USA; peterc@u.washington.edu

    https://doi.org/10.1136/ip.9.1.91

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      In a recent article, Robertson1 commented on our study of seat belts and death in a crash.2 Robertson wrote: “What is not explained adequately by the theory [about misclassification of seat belt use] is the sudden gap in police reported use by the dead and survivors that appeared in the mid-1980s”.

      Robertson’s criticism seems misplaced, as we offered no theory to explain changes in the prevalence of belt use. We reported that among front seat occupant pairs in which one or both died, the prevalence of belt use decreased from 12% in 1975 to 4% in 1980, and then rose to 40% in 1998.2 Explaining these changes, however, was not the focus of our paper. Using matched cohort methods, we noted that the risk ratio for death, comparing belted with unbelted occupants, was 0.59 using data …

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