Belted Female Occupants in Frontal Car Crashes are More Likely to Sustain Moderate Concussions than Male Occupants

Paper in proceeding, 2017

NASS-CDS data from years 2005-2015 was analyzed to estimate the frequency and risk of moderate and serious concussion injuries sustained by belted occupants in car crashes in the US. The concussion data was compared to all other brain injuries of higher severity and analyzed considering crash severity, crash year, car model year, and the victim’s age and sex. The results showed that an annual average estimation of 18,359 ±4,721 belted occupants sustained a concussion in the US, which comprises 84.7% of all occupants with MAISbrain2+ injury. After controlling for crash severity, female occupants in frontal crashes were estimated to be 1.4 times more likely to sustain a concussion than male occupants. As new strategies for the prevention of brain injuries are developed, this study suggests the need to incorporate moderate concussion injuries, with particular attention to female occupants.