A team at the Injury Research Center of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee has found that being obese increases male drivers' risk of dying in a car crash, as does being very slim. However, being moderately overweight might help cushion the blow.
They also found that obesity did not affect women's risk of death from such crashes. Their study is featured as a "First Look" article in the March, 2006 online American Journal of Public Health, and will appear in the April issue. It was funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Men with the highest body mass index (BMI) were at greatest risk for death from front or left-side collisions, especially at high speeds" says lead author Shankuan Zhu, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of family & community medicine. "Men with the lowest BMI also had higher death rates than the lowest rates, which were found among overweight, but not obese, men."
Their findings document another potential major health risk associated with obesity among men, and may have important implications for identifying high-risk drivers and for interventions in areas such as obesity, traffic safety policy, and motor vehicle design.