Daily HealthBeat Tip

Death and no seat belts

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

We know to wear seat belts. At least, many of us do. For the rest, here's what can happen if you wreck and wind up at the emergency department:

"Of the people who presented to an ED and died there, two thirds of those people were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash." (seven seconds)

That's Shane Allen of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, talking about what he found in a database of crash victims. The study in Academic Emergency Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Allen says the unbelted who lived were almost three times more likely to be admitted for more treatment, so a seat belt makes it more likely you'd just be sent home.

Bottom line: Fasten the belt.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 22, 2006

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