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Original research
Did ‘long COVID’ increase road deaths in the USA?
  1. Leon Robertson
  1. Environmental Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Leon Robertson, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; leon.robertson{at}yale.edu

Abstract

Objective To examine data on COVID-19 disease associated with a 10% increase in US road deaths from 2020 to 2021 that raises the question of the potential effect of pandemic stress and neurological damage from COVID-19 disease.

Methods Poisson regression was used to estimate the association of recent COVID-19 cases, accumulated cases, maximum temperatures, truck registrations and gasoline prices with road deaths monthly among US states in 2021. Using the regression coefficients, changes in each risk factor from 2020 to 2021 were used to calculate expected deaths in 2021 if each factor had remained the same as in 2020.

Results Corrected for the other risk factors, road deaths were associated with accumulated COVID-19 cases but not concurrent cases. More than 20 700 road deaths were associated with the changes in accumulated COVID-19 cases but were substantially offset by about 19 100 less-than-expected deaths associated with increased gasoline prices.

Conclusions The lingering effects of COVID-19 on neurological function may be a risk factor for behaviour leading to road deaths.

  • COVID-19
  • motor vehicle / occupant
  • pedestrian
  • cross sectional study
  • risk factor research

Data availability statement

Data are available on reasonable request. Data sources are publicly available at the websites cited. The matched data set is available on reasonable request.

https://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2023-045136

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available on reasonable request. Data sources are publicly available at the websites cited. The matched data set is available on reasonable request.

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    Footnotes

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.