What factors influence the severity of neck injury

What factors influence the severity of neck injury?

Height: Height is a risk factor, particularly among women, according to recent German research.¹¹ Often times shorterindividuals are protected by an unadjusted head restraint. Stature may not play a role in the severity of injury to men because many head restraints are too low to offer even shorter men protection. Taller motorists who don't adjust their head restraints are more likely to sustain whiplash injuries.

Gender: The same German report also found women to be 1.8 to 2.2 times more at risk of neck injury in all types of collisions, a finding that is consistent with research by the Institute and other organizations. In addition, a Swedish study found that women with whiplash injuries are more likely to develop long-term symptoms of whiplash than are men with whiplash. Fifty-five percent of the women who sustained whiplash injuries went on to develop long-term symptoms compared with 38 percent of men.¹² One possible explanation is that men have more neck musculature than women for about the same size head. Another hypothesis is that women tend to sit farther away from their seatbacks than men, thus their heads travel farther to the rear in a crash before reaching a head restraint.

Seating position: It is uncertain which seating position exposes an occupant to a greater chance of sustaining a neck injury. One study concluded drivers have a higher risk rate than passengers. It was hypothesized that drivers are prone to move forward and away from the seatback as they reach for the steering wheel and observe traffic around them, whereas passengers are usually more relaxed and lean further back in their seats, with their heads close to the restraint. Occupants seated in the back seat rather than the front, are also less likely to sustain a neck injury.¹³

A more recent study indicates a higher disability risk from neck injury for females than for males in any seating position. For females, the disability risk is lowest in the front passenger seat. The risk is significantly higher for females in the rear passenger seat. For men, there is a small difference between the front seat occupants, while the risk decreases from the front seat to the rear seat. The disability risk in the driver seat is three times higher for females than for males, and four times higher for females in the rear seat.¹⁴

 Reference

¹¹Temming, J. and Zobel, R. 1998. Frequency and risk of cervical spine distortion injuries in passenger car accidents: significance of human factors data. Proceedings of the International Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact 219-233. Goteborg, Sweden, IROCBI.

¹²Krafft, M. 1998. A comparison of short- and long-term consequences of AIS 1 neck injuries, in rear impacts. Proceeding of the International Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact, 235-248. Goteborg, Sweden, IRCOBI.

¹³Lundell, B.; Jakobsson, L.; Alfredsson, B.; Jernstrom, C.; and Isakkson-Hellman, I. 1998. Guidelines for and the design of a car seat concept for improved protection against neck injuries in rear end car impacts. SAE Technical Paper Series 980301. Detroit, MI: International Congress and Exposition.

¹⁴Krafft, M.; Kullgren, A.; Lie, A.; and Tingvall, C. 2003. The risk of whiplash injury in the rear seat compared to the front seat in rear impacts. Traffic Injury Prevention 4: 136-140.

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