Development of whiplash associated disorders for male and female car occupants in cars launched since the 80s in different impact directions

wbldb

Kullgren, Anders^1,2; Stigson, Helena^1,3; Krafft, Maria^1,4

Development of whiplash associated disorders for male and female car occupants in cars launched since the 80s in different impact directions

Proceedings of the 2013 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury

Affiliations

¹Folksam Research, Sweden

²Department of Applied Mechanics, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

³Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.

⁴Traffic Medicine, Umeå University, Sweden
Abstract and keywords

The aim was to investigate the development of Whiplash Associated Disorders (WAD) leading to long‐term consequences for drivers separated for gender in cars introduced at different year intervals and in different impact directions. An additional aim was to analyze the influence of various whiplash preventive concepts on WAD in rear impacts.

The developments were studied for cars grouped into 5‐year intervals according to year of introduction separated for frontal, side and rear‐end impacts and for gender. All drivers (24,452) reporting WAD during the years 1998‐2012, and those reporting symptoms > 1 month as well as those with permanent impairment, were included. Whiplash preventive concepts were grouped according to car make and concept.

A reduction in risk of long‐term consequences after reporting initial symptoms of WAD were found in rearend and side impacts comparing cars introduced on the market 1980‐84 and 2005‐2009. No reduction was found in frontal impacts. This clearly shows that more focus on preventive interventions for frontal impacts is needed.

Existing seat concepts aimed at lowering the risk of WAD were found to reduce the risk of long‐term consequences after reporting initial symptoms of WAD. However, seats with energy absorption in the seat back, passive seats or reactive seats are more effective for females than seats with Reactive Head Restr

Keywords: WAD, whiplash, whiplash symptoms, impairment, gender
Links

URL: http://www.ircobi.org/downloads/irc13/pdf_files/14.pdf

Cited Works (22)

Year	Entry
2000	Kullgren A, Krafft M, Malm S, Ydenius A, Tingvall C. Influence of airbags and seatbelt pretensioners on ais1 neck injuries for belted occupants in frontal impacts. Stapp Car Crash J. 2000;44:117-125. SAE 2000-01-SC09.
2005	Krafft M, Kullgren A, Malm S, Ydenius A. Influence of crash severity on various whiplash injury symptoms: a study based on real-life rear-end crashes with recorded crash pulses. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 6-9, 2005; Washington, DC.
2003	Krafft M, Kullgren A, Lie A, Tingvall C. The risk of whiplash injury in the rear seat compared to the front seat in rear impacts. Traffic Inj Prev. June 2003;4(2):136-40.
2011	Jonsson B, Krafft M, Kullgren A. Development of Whiplash Associated Disorders for adult and child occupants in cars launched since the 1980s in different impact directions. In: Proceedings of the 2011 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 14-16, 2011; Krakow, Poland.62-72.
1998	Sekizuka M. Seat designs for whiplash injury lessening. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.1570-1578.
2012	Carlsson A. Addressing Female Whiplash Injury Protection: A Step Towards 50th Percentile Female Rear Impact Occupant Models [PhD thesis]. Gothenburg, Sweden: Chalmers University of Technology; 2012.
2008	Farmer CM, Zuby DS, Wells JK, Hellinga LA. Relationship of dynamic seat ratings to real-world neck injury rates. Traffic Inj Prev. December 2008;9(6):561-567.
1998	Harder S, Veilleux M, Suissa S. The effect of socio-demographic and crash-related factors on the prognosis of whiplash. J Clin Epidemiol. May 1998;51(5):377-384.
2003	Viano DC. Seat influences on female neck responses in rear crashes: a reason why women have higher whiplash rates. Traffic Inj Prev. 2003;4(3):228-239.
2010	Kullgren A, Krafft M. Gender analysis on whiplash seat effectiveness: results rrom real-world crashes. In: Proceedings of the 2010 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 15-17, 2010; Hannover, Germany.17-28.
1998	Lundell B, Jakobsson L, Alfredsson B, Lindström M, Simonsson L. The WHIPS seat: a car seat for improved protection against neck injuries in rear end impacts. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.1586-1596.
2007	McCartt AT, Kyrychenko SY. Efficacy of side airbags in reducing driver deaths in driver-side car and SUV collisions. Traffic Inj Prev. 2007;8(2):162-170.
1983	Nygren Å. Injuries to car occupants: some aspects of the interior safety of cars: a study of a five-year material from an insurance company. Acta Oto-Laryngol. 1983;95(suppl 395):1-135.
1998	Krafft M. Non-Fatal Injuries to Car Occupants: Injury Assessment and Analysis of Impacts Causing Short- and Long-Term Consequences With Special Reference to Neck Injuries [PhD thesis]. Stockholm, Sweden: Karolinska Institute; 1998.
1995	Spitzer O Walter, Skovron ML, Salmi LR, Cassidy JD, Duranceau J, Suissa S, Zeiss E. Scientific monograph of the Quebec task force on whiplash-associated disorders: redefining "whiplash" and its management. Spine. 1995;20(suppl 8):2S-73S.
2002	Krafft M. When do AIS 1 neck injuries result in long-term consequences? vehicle and human factors. Traffic Inj Prev. 2002;3(2):89-97.
1998	Wiklund K, Larsson H. Saab active head restraint (SAHR): seat design to reduce the risk of neck injuries in rear impacts. In: Proceedings of the SAE International Congress & Exposition. February 23-26, 1998; Detroit, MI. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers. SAE 980297.
2011	Stigson H, Kullgren A. Effect of side impact protection in reducing injuries. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 13-16, 2011; Washington, DC.
1996	Morris AP, Thomas P. Neck injuries in the UK co-operative crash injury study. In: Proceedings of the 40th Stapp Car Crash Conference. November 4-6, 1996; Albuquerque, NM. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:317-329. SAE 962433.
2001	Viano DC, Olsen S. The effectiveness of active head restraint in preventing whiplash. J Trauma. November 2001;51(5):959-969.
2003	Berglund A, Alfredsson L, Jensen I, Bodin L, Nygren Å. Occupant- and crash-related factors associated with the risk of whiplash injury. Am J Epidemiol. January 2003;13(1):66-72.
1998	Temming J, Zobel R. Frequency and risk of cervical spine distortion injuries in passenger car accidents: significance of human factors data. In: Proceedings of the 1998 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 16-18, 1998; Göteberg, Sweden.219-233.

Cited By (13)

Year	Entry
2015	Brolin K, Östh J, Svensson M, Sato F, Ono K, Linder A, Kullgren A. Aiming for an average female virtual human body model for seat performance assessment in rear-end impacts. In: Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 8-11, 2015; Gothenburg, Sweden.
2015	Kullgren A, Fildes B, van Ratingen M, Ellway J, Keall M. Evaluation of the Euro NCAP whiplash protocol using real-world crash data. In: Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 8-11, 2015; Gothenburg, Sweden.
2014	Sato F, Nakajima T, Ono K, Svensson M, Brolin K, Kaneoka K. Dynamic cervical vertebral motion of female and male volunteers and analysis of its interaction with head/neck/torso behavior during low‐speed rear impact. In: Proceedings of the 2014 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 10-12, 2014; Berlin, Germany.227-249.
2015	Jakobsson L, Lindman M, Björklund M, Victor T. Rear‐end impact: crash prevention and occupant protection. In: Proceedings of the 2015 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 9-11, 2015; Lyon, France.803-813.
2015	Kitagawa Y, Yamada K, Motojima H, Yasuki T. Consideration on gender difference of whiplash associated disorder in low speed rear impact. In: Proceedings of the 2015 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 9-11, 2015; Lyon, France.233-245.
2015	Sato F, Nakajima T, Ono K, Svensson M, Kaneoka K. Characteristics of dynamic cervical vertebral kinematics for female and male volunteers in low‐speed rear impact, based on quasi‐static neck kinematics. In: Proceedings of the 2015 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 9-11, 2015; Lyon, France.261-277.
2016	Sato F, Odani M, Miyazaki Y, Nakajima T, Antona Makoshi J, Yamazaki K, Ono K, Svensson M, Östh J, Morikawa S, Schick S, Perez AF. Investigation of whole spine alignment patterns in automotive seated posture using upright open MRI systems. In: Proceedings of the 2016 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 14-16, 2016; Malaga, Spain.113-130.
2017	Elrud R, Stigson H, Ohlin M, Alexanderson K, Kjeldgård L, Friberg E. Sickness absence among passenger car occupants following a crash. In: Proceedings of the 2017 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 13-15, 2017; Antwerp, Belgium.79-90.
2017	Östh J, Mendoza‐Vazquez M, Linder A, Svensson MY, Brolin K. The VIVA OpenHBM finite element 50th percentile female occupant model: whole body model development and kinematic validation. In: Proceedings of the 2017 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 13-15, 2017; Antwerp, Belgium.443-466.
2021	Jakobsson L, Östh J, Bohman K. Rear-end impact assessment expanded with pre-impact posture variations. In: Proceedings of the 2021 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 8-10, 2021; Online.753-770.
2022	John JD, Putra IPA, Iraeus J. Finite element human body models to study sex-differences in whiplash injury: validation of VIVA+ passive response in rear-impact. In: Proceedings of the 2022 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 14-16, 2022; Porto, Portugal.215-226.
2020	Fabre MAC. Development of Elderly Posture Male and Female Finite Element Neck Models and Assessment of Tissue-Level Response Under Impact Loading [Master's thesis]. University of Waterloo; 2020.
2020	Shen D. Investigation of Whiplash Associated Disorders Using Finite Element Neck Models With Active Musculature in Frontal, Rear and Lateral Impact [Master's thesis]. University of Waterloo; 2020.