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

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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

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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.
2024	Alvarez V, Brolin K, John J, Svensson MY, Linder A. Finite element modeling of the seat evaluation tools (SETs). In: Proceedings of the 2024 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 11-13, 2024; Stockholm, Sweden.730-731.
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.