Racial Disparities in Survival Among Injured Drivers

Abstract

Prior studies on racial and ethnic disparities in survival after motor vehicle crashes have examined only population-based death rates or have been restricted to hospitalized patients. In the current study, we examined 3 components of crash survival by race/ethnicity: survival overall, survival to reach a hospital, and survival among those hospitalized. Nine years of data (from 2000 through 2008) from the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System were used to examine white non-Hispanic, black non-Hispanic, and Hispanic drivers aged ≥ 15 years with serious injuries (injury severity scores of ≥ 9). By using multivariable logistic regression, we found that a driver's race/ethnicity was not significantly associated with overall survival after being injured in a crash (for blacks, odds ratio (OR) = 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.36, 1.32; for Hispanics, OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.59, 1.72), and blacks and Hispanics were equally likely to survive to be treated at a hospital compared with whites (for blacks, OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.52, 1.93; for Hispanics, OR = 1.13, 95% CI: 0.71, 1.79). However, among patients who were treated at a hospital, blacks were 50% less likely to survive 30 days compared with whites (OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.33, 0.76). The disparity in survival after serious traffic injuries among blacks appears to occur after hospitalization, not in prehospital survival.