MONDAY, Mar. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Although the mortality rate related to motor vehicles remained almost unchanged from 1999 to 2005 in the United States, on closer inspection the data reveals wide variations from state to state, as well as by gender and ethnicity, according to a report published in the Feb. 27 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Nelson Adekoya, of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control in Atlanta, and colleagues report that between 1999 and 2005 the motor vehicle-related mortality rate ranged from 15.2 to 15.7 per 100,000, with Massachusetts having the lowest rate at 7.9 per 100,000 and Mississippi having the highest at 31.9 per 100,000. In the Northeast region the rate was 9.8 per 100,000 versus 19.5 per 100,000 in the South, the researchers note.
While the rate for women was 9.4 per 100,000, it was more than double this for men at 21.7, and while the rate for whites and blacks was 15.7 and 15.2, respectively, the rate for American Indians/Alaska Natives was 27.2 per 100,000, the investigators found.
"Additional analysis and research to determine the causes of geographic and demographic variations in motor vehicle-related deaths might result in more effective targeted interventions among the states, regions and populations at greatest risk," the authors write.
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