Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37290204›Full record

ArticleAccident; analysis and prevention2023

A decomposition of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on changes in the motor vehicle collision related mortality in Alabama.

Lindy Reynolds, Russell L Griffin

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Accident; analysis and prevention, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.6field-weighted citation impact, top 35% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Lindy ReynoldsDepartment of Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States. Electronic address: lmr1626@uab.edu.
Russell L GriffinDepartment of Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; Department of Surgery, Division of Acute Care Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States. Electronic address: russellg@uab.edu.
University of Alabama at Birmingham · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND/

objectiveMotor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of unintentional injury death in Alabama and at various points during the COVID-19 pandemic there were documented increases in the following risk driving behaviors: speeding, driving under the influence, and seat belt citations. Thus, the objective was to characterize the overall motor vehicle collision (MVC)-related mortality rate in Alabama and the contribution of each component over the first two years of the pandemic compared to before the pandemic by three different road classes: urban arterials, rural arterials, and all other road classes.

methodsMVC data were derived from the Alabama eCrash database, an electronic crash reporting system used by police officers across the state. Data on vehicle miles traveled each year were collected from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration estimates of traffic volume trends. MVC-related mortality in Alabama was the primary outcome and year of MVC was the exposure. The novel decomposition method broke down population mortality rate into four parts: deaths per MVC injury, injury per MVC, MVC per vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and VMT per population. Poisson models with scaled deviance were used to estimate rate ratios of each component. Relative contribution (RC) of each component was calculated by taking the absolute value of the component's beta coefficient and dividing by the sum of the absolute values of all components' beta coefficients. Models were stratified by road class.

resultsAcross all road classes combined, there were no significant changes to the overall MVC-related mortality rate (per population) and its components when comparing 2020-2022 to 2017-2019; this was due to the increased case fatality rate (CFR) being offset by decreases in the VMT rate and MVC injury rate. In 2020, among rural arterials a non-significant increased mortality rate was offset by a decreased VMT rate (RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.84-0.98, RC 19.2%) and MVC injury rate (RR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.82-0.97, RC: 22.2%) when compared to 2017-2019. For non-arterials, a non-significant decreased MVC mortality rate was observed in 2020 when compared to 2017-2019 (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.71-1.03). When considering 2021-2022 versus 2020, the only significant component for any road class was a decreased MVC injury rate for non-arterials (RR: 0.90,95% CI: 0.89-0.93) but this was offset by an increased MVC rate and CFR, resulting in no significant change to the mortality rate (per population).

conclusionsIn a state with one of the highest MVC-related mortality rates in the country, despite decreases in VMTs per population and injuries per MVC, the MVC mortality rate per population did not change during the pandemic due in part to the contributions of an increase in the case fatality rate. Future research should determine whether the increase in CFR was associated with risky driving behaviors during the pandemic.

Indexed as

Accidental InjuriesCOVID-19Accidents, TrafficAlabamaHumansMotor VehiclesPandemicsCrashEpidemiologyInjuryMortality rateMotor-vehicle collision

Identifiers

PMID37290204
PMCPMC10244029
OpenAlexW4379622176

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.