23197672

PMC3715558

Objective

Pedestrians account for a third of the 1.2 million traffic fatalities annually worldwide, and males are overrepresented. We examined the factors that contribute to this male-female discrepancy: walking exposure (kilometers walked per person-year), vehicle-pedestrian collision risk (number of collisions per kilometers walked), and vehicle-pedestrian collision case fatality rate (number of deaths per collision).

Design

The decomposition method quantifies the relative contributions of individual factors to death rate ratios among groups. The male-female ratio of pedestrian death rates can be expressed as the product of three component ratios: walking exposure, collision risk, and case fatality rate. Data sources included the 2008–2009 U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System, General Estimates System, National Household Travel Survey, and population estimates.

Setting

U.S.

Participants

Pedestrians age 5 and older.

Main outcome measures

death rate per person-year, kilometers walked per person-year, collisions per kilometers walked, and deaths per collision by sex.

Results

The pedestrian death rate per person-year for males was 2.3 times that for females. This ratio of male to female rates can be expressed as the product of three component ratios: 0.995 for walking exposure, 1.191 for collision risk, and 1.976 for case fatality rate. The relative contributions of these components were 1%, 20% and 79%, respectively.

Conclusions

The majority of the male-female discrepancy in 2008–2009 pedestrian deaths in the U.S. is attributed to a higher fatality per collision rate among male pedestrians.

CDC Public Access

R01 AA018313/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS/United States
R01 HD074594/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States
R01AA18313/AA/NIAAA NIH HHS/United States
R21CE001820/CE/NCIPC CDC HHS/United States
R49CE001170/CE/NCIPC CDC HHS/United States