Traumatic injuries among adult obese patients in southern Taiwan: a cross-sectional study based on a trauma registry system

BACKGROUND: The adverse impact of obesity has been extensively studied in the general population; however, the added risk of obesity on trauma-related mortality remains controversial. This study investigated and compared mortality as well injury patterns and length of stay (LOS) in obese and normal-weight patients hospitalized for trauma in the hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) of a Level I trauma center in southern Taiwan. METHODS: Detailed data of 880 obese adult patients with body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m(2) and 5391 normal-weight adult patients (25 > BMI ≥ 18.5 kg/m(2)) who had sustained a trauma injury between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2013were retrieved from the Trauma Registry System. Pearson’s chi-squared, Fisher’s exact, and independent Student’s t-tests were used to compare differences between groups. Propensity score matching with logistic regression was used to evaluate the effect of obesity on mortality. RESULTS: In this study, obese patients were more often men, motorcycle riders and pedestrians, and had a lower proportion of alcohol intoxication compared to normal-weight patients. Analysis of Abbreviated Injury Scale scores revealed that obese trauma patients presented with a higher rate of injury to the thorax, but a lower rate of facial injuries than normal-weight patients. No significant differences were found between obese and normal-weight patients regarding Injury Severity Score (ISS), Trauma-Injury Severity Score (TRISS), mortality, the proportion of patients admitted to the ICU, or LOS in ICU. After propensity score matching, logistic regression of 66 well-matched pairs did not show a significant influence of obesity on mortality (odds ratio: 1.51, 95 % confidence interval: 0.54–4.23 p = 0.438). However, significantly longer hospital LOS (10.6 vs. 9.5 days, respectively, p = 0.044) was observed in obese patients than in normal-weight patients, particularly obese patients with pelvic, tibial, or fibular fractures. CONCLUSION: Compared to normal-weight patients, obese patients presented with different injury characteristics and bodily injury patterns but no difference in mortality. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2950-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.