Abstract
BackgroundThis ecological study aimed i) to quantify the association of age and gender with the three components of pedestrians’ death rates after a pedestrian-vehicle crash: exposure, risk of crash and fatality, and ii) to determine the contribution of each component to differences in death rates according to age and gender in Spain.MethodsWe analyzed data for 220 665 pedestrians involved in road crashes recorded in the Spanish registry of road crashes with victims from 1993 to 2011, and a subset of 39 743 pedestrians involved in clean collisions (in which the pedestrian did not commit an infraction). Using decomposition and quasi-induced exposure methods, we obtained the proportion of increase in death rates for each age and gender group associated with exposure, risk of collision and fatality.ResultsDeath rates increased with age. The main contributor to this increase was fatality, although exposure also increased with age. In contrast, the risk of collision decreased with age. Males had higher death rates than females, especially in the 24–54 year old group. Higher fatality rates in males were the main determinant of this difference, which was also related with a higher risk of collision in males. However, exposure rates were higher in females.ConclusionsThe magnitude and direction of the associations between age and gender and each of the three components of pedestrians’ death rates differed depending on the specific component explored. These differences need to be taken into account in order to prioritize preventive strategies intended to decrease mortality among pedestrians.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40621-016-0079-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
This ecological study aimed i) to quantify the association of age and gender with the three components of pedestrians’ death rates after a pedestrian-vehicle crash: exposure, risk of crash and fatality, and ii) to determine the contribution of each component to differences in death rates according to age and gender in Spain
In accordance with the quasi-induced exposure method (Lenguerrand et al 2008), we assumed that the age and gender distribution of non-responsible pedestrians involved in clean collisions would approximately resemble that of the overall population of pedestrians exposed to the risk of being struck by a vehicle
mortality rate ratio (MRR) for each age group was always higher for males, with male/female rate ratios (Fig. 3) increasing from 1.52 in the lowest age category to 4.03 in the 35–44 year age group, decreasing to 1.66 in the 65–74 year age group, and increasing again to 2.59 in the oldest group
Summary
This ecological study aimed i) to quantify the association of age and gender with the three components of pedestrians’ death rates after a pedestrian-vehicle crash: exposure, risk of crash and fatality, and ii) to determine the contribution of each component to differences in death rates according to age and gender in Spain. Zhu et al 2013) and the quasi-induced exposure method (Lardelli-Claret et al 2006; Lenguerrand et al 2008) to quantify the association of age and gender with each of the three components of PCDR (exposure, risk of crash and fatality rate), as well as to determine the contribution of each of these components to differences in PCDR according to age and gender in Spain from 1993 to 2011
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