One possible solution from Meharry Medical’s website would make a great stocking stuffer for obese friends and family this Christmas: a seat-belt extender.
In a study published in the November 2007 issue of the journal, Obesity, lead author David Schlundt, Ph.D., a health psychologist who leads behavioral research for the Meharry-State Farm Alliance in Nashville, reported that people who are obese have lower rates of seat belt use than their lean counterparts.
An estimated 26 percent of the United States adult population, or about 60 million people, are obese, according to 2006 data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For its study, the Alliance analyzed 2002 data from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.
Researchers divided the more than 230,000 people into groups based on their body mass index (BMI), a measure of how overweight an individual is. The rate of always wearing seat belts was 82.6 percent for non-obese motorists (BMI less than 25), 80.1 percent for overweight motorists (BMI 25-29), 76.6 percent for obese motorists (BMI: 30-39) and 69.8 percent for extremely obese motorists (BMI 40 and above). The gap climbed from 2.5 percent for overweight, to 6.0 percent among the obese, to 12.8 percent among the extremely obese.
[Obesity Blamed for Another Public Health Crisis: Preventable Death and Injury Due to Failure to Use Seat Belts - MMC - November 2007]
The first question that comes to mind is whether the study is identifying a genuine difference in seat belt usage based on obesity. You have to wonder whether the researchers controlled for education and socio-economic status, or is the finding about seat belt usage really a finding that better educated, wealthier people tend to use seat belts more and also are less likely to be obese?
If it is true that heavier people are less likely to use seat belts, I’d like to propose a possible explanation.
Have you ever noticed that at the supermarket, the heavier people are, the slower they tend to be to fish out their money or credit card and complete their transaction? We’re not talking about major exertions here, just hand and wrist activity. Your guess as to the reason is as good as mine: slow metabolism, lack of energy, general attitude of passivity and indifference and fatalism–or some combination of the above. Could that help explain a difference in seat belt usage? Is the real problem that some people just can’t seem to rouse themselves and, as it were, get their moon over the mountain?
I’m with you on that. Watch The Biggest Looser and listen to all those fat people complain about their genes, diseases and physical conditions as the uncontrollable roadblocks in their life. And then in a matter of weeks a little hard work pays off. The doctor tells them their thyroid problems, diabetes and heart issues just melted away. Imagine that.
My biggest beef is listening to fat people talk about the problems they have as though that’s the cards they were dealt. They expect sympathy from everyone for their health problems yet continue unhealthy lifestyles.
I don’t think everyone who is obese can help it. No matter why they are obese, we should make sure everyone wears their seat-belt. If this study is correct, obese people wear their seat-belt less often than others, and that’s dangerous. I hope that this post will help people think more about whether their obese loved one uses their seat-belt or not and urge them to do so.