Citation

Zhu M, Zhao S, Coben JH, Smith GCS. Inj. Prev. 2013; 19(4): 227-231.

Affiliation

Department of Epidemiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/injuryprev-2012-040594

PMID

23197672

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Pedestrians account for a third of the 1.2 million traffic fatalities annually worldwide, and men are overrepresented. We examined the factors that contribute to this male-female discrepancy: walking exposure (kilometres walked per person-year), vehicle-pedestrian collision risk (number of collisions per kilometres walked) and vehicle-pedestrian collision case fatality rate (number of deaths per collision). DESIGN: The decomposition method quantifies the relative contributions (RCs) of individual factors to death rate ratios among groups. The male-female ratio of pedestrian death rates can be expressed as the product of three component ratios: walking exposure, collision risk and case fatality rate. Data sources included the 2008-2009 US Fatality Analysis Reporting System, General Estimates System, National Household Travel Survey and population estimates. SETTING: USA. PARTICIPANTS: Pedestrians aged 5 years and older. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Death rate per person-year, kilometres walked per person-year, collisions per kilometres walked and deaths per collision by sex. RESULTS: The pedestrian death rate per person-year for men was 2.3 times that for women. This ratio of male to female rates can be expressed as the product of three component ratios: 0.995 for walking exposure, 1.191 for collision risk and 1.976 for case fatality rate. The RCs of these components were 1%, 20% and 79%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the male-female discrepancy in 2008-2009 pedestrian deaths in the US is attributed to a higher fatality per collision rate among male pedestrians.

Language: en