PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 12, 2022 — Potential reasons for hesitancy to get a COVID-19 vaccine may be related to transportation, according to a new study in the American Journal of Medicine, published by Elsevier. associated with an increased risk of accidents. Adults who ignore these health recommendations are also likely to ignore basic road safety, the researchers found. They suggest that increased awareness may encourage more COVID-19 vaccinations.
Motor vehicle accidents are a common cause of sudden death, brain injury, spinal injury, bone fractures, chronic pain and other disabling conditions. Traffic accident risk is a complication of several medical conditions, including alcohol abuse, sleep apnea and diabetes. However, a possible link between vaccine hesitancy and traffic accidents has not been studied before.
“COVID-19 vaccination is an objective, usable, important, validated and timely indicator of human behavior—albeit in a different domain than motor vehicle transportation,” said Donald A. Redelmeier, Principal Investigator, Evaluation Clinical Sciences, Sunnybrook Institute Dr. Explains; Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto; Institute of Clinical Evaluation Sciences; Department of General Internal Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
“However, whether COVID-19 vaccination is associated with increased traffic risk has not been tested before. For example, simple immune activation against the coronavirus had no direct effect on the risk of motor vehicle crashes. Instead, we found that adults Basic road safety norms may also be ignored,” he continued.
Investigators tested whether COVID-19 vaccination is associated with risk of traffic accidents in Ontario, Canada’s most populous region with more than 14.5 million residents in 2021. The average adult has a 2% annual crash risk (including minor accidents), the minimum driving age is 16, and novice drivers initially get a learner’s licence. The COVID-19 vaccine will become available in winter 2020, be widely available to adults by spring 2021, and reach a plateau by summer 2021. Vaccinations are free to all, supported by community outreach, accompanied by public events, and linked to a central registration system.
The researchers conducted a population-based longitudinal cohort analysis of adults and identified COVID-19 vaccination status through linkage to personal electronic medical records. Subsequently, during a one-month follow-up period, multicenter results from 178 centers in the region identified traffic accidents requiring urgent medical attention.
Including more than 11 million people, 16 percent of whom have not been vaccinated against COVID-19. The cohort had 6,682 traffic accidents during the follow-up period. Unvaccinated people were responsible for 1,682 crashes (25%), a relative risk increase of 72% compared with vaccinated people. The increased risk was higher than that associated with diabetes and similar to the relative risk associated with sleep apnea.
The increased traffic risk among unvaccinated adults extended to different subgroups (older versus younger; drivers versus pedestrians; richer versus poorer), after adjusting for age, sex, home location, socioeconomic status, and medical diagnosis, increased by 48%. The increased traffic risk extends across the entire crash severity range and is similar to Pfizer, Moderna, or other vaccines. The increased risk resulted in a total of 704 additional traffic accidents.
“Studies have found that unvaccinated adults have a 50%-70% higher traffic risk compared to vaccinated adults,” noted Dr. Redelmeier. “These data suggest that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is associated with a significantly increased risk of traffic accidents, but it does not imply that COVID-19 vaccination directly prevents accidents. Rather, it suggests that adults who do not follow public health recommendations Traffic rules may also be ignored. Misperceptions about everyday risks can lead people to put themselves and others in serious danger.”
The authors recommend that those who are hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine reflect on their choices and recognize that these decisions can affect them in ways they could not have imagined. “We don’t want unvaccinated people to feel persecuted, and we don’t advise them to stop driving; of patients would not be a traffic statistic,” concludes Dr Redelmeier.
