Motor-vehicle crashes during pregnancy: a retrospective cohort study
Harold B. Weiss, Erin K. Sauber-Schatz, Amy H. Herring
.
DOI: 10.4236/ojog.2011.14039   PDF    HTML     5,326 Downloads   9,420 Views   Citations

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the risk of motor-vehicle pregnant driver crashes in Pennsylvania using vital statistics linked to police and ambulance reports. This was supplemented with a review of national age and sex specific crash and fertility data to put this risk into perspective and rank the likelihood for pregnancy-related crashes in other states. Methods: Motor vehicle police crash reports from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation were probabilistically linked to four years of birth and fetal death data and five years of infant death records and ambulance reports. State specific motor-vehicle traffic injury rates (fatal and non-fatal) were compared to birth rates, by age, for women ages 15 - 34. Results: 5929 (1.1%) of the women with a birth or fetal death linked to a police reported motor vehicle driver crash during pregnancy. One-third (32.5%) of these crashes resulted in minor maternal injuries and 7.5% resulted in moderate to fatal maternal injuries. Crashes were evenly distributed across gestational ages. Young drivers (20 - 24) were at highest risk. Police reported non-belt use was 10%. Conclusions: This study quantifies the risk of motor vehicle crashes during pregnancy in Pennsylvania and offers a perspective on potential variations in other states. Pregnancy related crashes occur at a higher rate than infant related crashes with a concomitant threat to the fetus and new-born not usually tracked within current crash data systems.

Share and Cite:

Weiss, H. , Sauber-Schatz, E. and Herring, A. (2011) Motor-vehicle crashes during pregnancy: a retrospective cohort study. Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1, 202-207. doi: 10.4236/ojog.2011.14039.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] Rochat, R.W., et al. (1988) Maternal mortality in the United States: Report from the maternal mortality collaborative. Obstetrics Gynecology, 72, 91-97.
[2] Weiss, H.B. (2001) Causes of traumatic death during pregnancy (letter). Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, 2854-2855. doi:10.1001/jama.285.22.2854
[3] Weiss, H.B. (1999) Pregnancy-associated injury hospitalizations in Pennsylvania. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 34, 626-636. doi:10.1016/S0196-0644(99)70165-4
[4] Schiff, M.H.V.L. and Daling, J.R. (2001) Pregnancy-associated injury hospitalizations: Maternal and fetal outcomes. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 15, A29. doi:10.1046/j.1365-3016.2001.00381-91.x
[5] Pearlman, M.D. (1997) Motor vehicle crashes, pregnancy loss and preterm labor. International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, 57, 127-132.
[6] Weiss, H.B. (2001) The epidemiology of traumatic injury-related fetal mortality in Pennsylvania, 1995-1997: The role of motor vehicle crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 33, 449-454. doi:10.1016/S0001-4575(00)00058-0
[7] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQA RS) [online]. (2007) [cited 2011 Nov. 28]. http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars
[8] Weiss, H.B. and Strotmeyer, S. (2002) Characteristics of pregnant women in motor vehicle crashes. Injury Prevention, 8, 207-210. doi:10.1136/ip.8.3.207
[9] U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. National Automotive Sampling System (NASS), 2008 General Estimates System (GES). [Web page] 2008 July 25, 2009]; Available from: ftp://ftp.nhtsa.dot.gov/GES/GES08/.
[10] Haapaniemi, P. (1996) Women’s highway deaths on the rise. Traffic Safety, 96, 6-11.
[11] Hyde, L.K., et al. (2003) Effect of motor vehicle crashes on adverse fetal outcomes. Obstetrics Gynecology, 102, 279-286. doi:10.1016/S0029-7844(03)00518-0
[12] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Center for Health Statistics. Compressed Mortality File 1999-2005. http://wonder.cdc.gov/cmf-icd10.html.
[13] Mathews, T.J. and Hamilton, B.E. (2002) Mean age of mother, 1970-2000. National Vital Statistics Reports, National Center for Health Statistics, 51, 1120-2003.
[14] American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (1991) Automobile passenger restraints for children and pregnant women. ACOG Technical Bulletin, 151.
[15] National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Seatbelts and Pregnancy Brochure, 2002; Available from: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/airbags/Internet_Sevices_Group/ISG-Restricted/Buckle-Up%20America/pregnancybrochure/BUA_PregnancyNHTSAchange.pdf.
[16] Manoogian, S.J., Moorcroft, D.M. and Duma, S.M. (2008) Pregnant occupant injury risk in severe frontal crashes using computer simulations. Biomedical Sciences Instrumentation, 44, 249-255.
[17] Klinich, K.D., et al. (2008) Fetal outcome in motor-vehicle crashes: Effects of crash characteristics and maternal restraint. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 198, E1-E9. doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2008.02.009
[18] Allen, M. and Weiss, H. (1998) Using linked data to evaluate child safety seat effectiveness in pennsylvania. Report from the Pennsylvania Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.