International Journal of Epidemiology 2003;32:147-149
© International Epidemiological Association 2003
Is body mass index a risk factor for motor vehicle driver injury? A cohort study with prospective and retrospective outcomes
1 Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
2 Institute for International Health, University of Sydney, Australia.
3 Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford, UK.
4 Department of Community Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Correspondence: Dr Gary Whitlock, Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiology Studies Unit, Harkness Building, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford OX2 6HE, UK. E-mail: gary.whitlock{at}ctsu.ox.ac.uk
Objective To investigate the association between risk of motor vehicle driver injury and body mass index (BMI).
Methods In a cohort study of 10 525 New Zealand men and women, BMI was assessed in 1992–1993 (baseline), and data on deaths and hospitalizations for motor vehicle driver injury were obtained by record linkage to national health databases for the period 1988–1998. Hazard ratios (HR) and CI were estimated by Cox regression.
Results During a mean 10.3 years of follow-up, 139 fatal and non-fatal driver injury cases occurred (85 before baseline and 54 after). A U-shaped association was observed between driver injury risk and BMI, both crudely and after adjustment for covariates, which included age, sex, driving exposure, and alcohol intake (P-values for quadratic trend 
0.02). Participants in the highest (
28.7 kg/m2; HR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.18–3.39) and lowest (<23.5 kg/m2; HR = 2.17, 95% CI: 1.27–3.73) quartiles of BMI were twice as likely to have experienced a driver injury during the follow-up period as participants in the reference quartile (25.9–28.6 kg/m2; HR = 1.00).
Conclusion Further research is needed to corroborate or refute the hypothesis that BMI is a risk factor for serious motor vehicle driver injury.
Keywords Traffic accidents, injury, body mass index, obesity, cohort studies
Accepted 3 October 2002
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