Overweight Children Suffer More Injuries in Car Accidents

December 2008

Car accidents are dangerous for everyone, but a new study has found that they pose a greater danger to one group in particular. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School have found that children who are overweight or obese are more than two-and-a-half times more likely to suffer injuries in a car crash than other children.

Scientists studied 9- to 15-year-old children over five feet tall and not required to be in a booster seat. They found that children who were above normal on the body-mass index scale suffered more injuries to their extremities. The researchers said that because motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among children in the United States, and one out of three kids in the United States is overweight or obese, car accident injury prevention programs need to take into account the role of children's body mass.

All children involved in the study were being driven by a parent at the time of the car accident. Ninety-six percent of the children were restrained, most with a lap/shoulder belt, and more than half were seated in the front of the vehicle.