Petridou E, Skalkidou A, Ioannou N, Trichopoulos D
Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Athens University Medical School, Greece.
Accid Anal Prev. 1998 Jan;30(1):87-91. doi: 10.1016/s0001-4575(97)00065-1.
It has been established that seat belt use by car occupants and helmet use by motorcycle riders substantially reduces the risk of serious and fatal injuries following accidents. No study, however, has evaluated the motor vehicle deaths that could be prevented in Greece by general use of these devices, even though this country has the highest mortality from motor vehicle accidents in the European Union. We have estimated the odds ratios (OR) for death rather than injury in a motor vehicle accident by seat belt use among occupants of passenger cars or helmet use among motorcycle riders, using a nationwide database in which persons killed or injured in road traffic accidents in 1985 and 1994 were recorded. The study base included 910 dead and 19,511 injured persons for 1985 and 1203 dead and 22,186 injured persons for 1994. The OR and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for death rather than injury was 0.69 (CI: 0.58 to 0.81, p < 10(-5)) for seat belt users versus non-users and 0.64 (CI: 0.51 to 0.81; p < 10(-3)) for helmet users versus non-users. There was evidence that the protective effect of these passive safety devices increased from 1985 to 1994 probably reflecting technological improvements. The proportion of all deaths that could have been avoided if all car occupants used seat belts was estimated to 27%, whereas 38% of motorcycle deaths could have been avoided if all motorcycle riders used helmets. These proportions translate to about 500 deaths per year, mostly deaths among young men.
已经确定，汽车乘客使用安全带和摩托车骑手使用头盔可大幅降低事故后严重受伤和致命伤的风险。然而，尽管希腊是欧盟中机动车事故死亡率最高的国家，但尚无研究评估在该国普遍使用这些装置可预防的机动车死亡人数。我们利用一个全国性数据库，估计了乘用车乘客使用安全带或摩托车骑手使用头盔在机动车事故中死亡而非受伤的比值比（OR），该数据库记录了1985年和1994年道路交通事故中的伤亡人员。研究样本包括1985年的910名死亡人员和19511名受伤人员，以及1994年的1203名死亡人员和22186名受伤人员。安全带使用者与非使用者相比，死亡而非受伤的OR及95%置信区间（CI）为0.69（CI：0.58至0.81，p<10⁻⁵）；头盔使用者与非使用者相比，该值为0.64（CI：0.51至0.81；p<10⁻³）。有证据表明，这些被动安全装置的保护作用从1985年到1994年有所增强，这可能反映了技术的改进。如果所有汽车乘客都使用安全带，估计可避免的死亡人数占总死亡人数的比例为27%；如果所有摩托车骑手都使用头盔，可避免的摩托车死亡人数比例为38%。这些比例相当于每年约500人死亡，其中大多数是年轻男性的死亡。
