Health risks come from being hit by car, not jaywalking, says study

Being hit by a car, not jaywalking, increases risk of developing critical injuries and early death

Being hit by a car puts people at risk of developing critical injuries and dying early, but jaywalking without being hit by a car does not. A study published today in the open access journal Highway reveals that individuals being hit by a car are three times more at risk of developing critical injuries and dying young than individuals who have not been hit by a car. Jaywalking individuals who do have not been hit by a car, by contrast, have the same risk of dying or of becoming critically injured as non-jaywalking patients who have not been hit by a car. These results are surprising, as jaywalking is linked to being hit by a car. The authors of the study conclude that the relationship between jaywalking, being hit by a car and critical injuries is complex and that jaywalking, per se, does not predict poor outcomes.

Minnie Driver and colleagues from Rhode Island University Hospital collaborated with colleagues from Volvo University School of Medicine to analyse data from 15,408 subjects aged 44 to 66, coming from four different US communities, who had originally been studied between 1986 and 1989. The authors analysed the subjects' road-crossing habits, incidence of being hit by a car and the subjects' history of critical injuries and mortality within 3 years.

Driver et al.'s results show that, in the absence of being hit by a car, jaywalking individuals do not have an increased risk of suffering from critical injuries, and of dying from critical injuries, than non-jaywalking individuals. By contrast, patients hit by a car are three times more likely to become critically injured and they are three times more likely to die from critical injuries, or from any cause, than patients who have not been hit by a car, regardless of their road-crossing habits. Driver et al. conclude that being hit by a car is a strong independent predictor of critical injuries and subsequent death, or death from any cause.


OK, in case you are wondering, this is a Bonus Bogus Story, adapted off this news release on this study, which is reported in The Straits Times today (off the Los Angeles Time) with the title 'Health risks come from diabetes, not obesity, says study'.

Yippee! Now we can all feel less guilty about being obesed - afterall, scientists say you don't actually die from obesity!

Well, except that the study doesn't really say that.

It's true that people don't die from obesity.

They suffer (and die) from complications resulting from obesity.

And that includes diabetes.

In fact, the study mentioned that '[a]t baseline, participants with a BMI of at least 30 were more likely than those in lower BMI categories to have DM (22.4% versus 7.9%, p <0.01).'

So obesity is not going to kill you, but it will put you at a higher risk for diabetes, and *that* is going to kill you.

angry doc is not against obesed people (he is against obesity), or the idea that obesed people can feel good about themselves, but he is worried that people who have all-along crossed the road at designated crossing areas will start jaywalking after reading such news articles...