BRIEF REPORT

Trends in serious head injuries among English cyclists and pedestrians

A Cook¹ and A Sheikh²

¹ Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
² Professor of Primary Care Research and Development, Division of Community Health Sciences: GP Section, University of Edinburgh

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Mr A Cook, Commission for Health Improvement, Finsbury Tower, 103–105 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8TG, UK;
adrian.cook{at}chi.nhs.uk

In England the use of bicycle helmets remains low as debate continues about their effectiveness. Time trend studies have previously shown an inverse association between helmet wearing rates and hospital admissions for head injury, but data on helmet wearing are often sparse and admission rates vary for numerous reasons. For the period of this study comprehensive data on helmet wearing are available, and pedestrians are used as a control to monitor trends in admission. Among cyclists admitted to hospital, the percentage with head injury reduced from 27.9% (n = 3070) to 20.4% (n = 2154), as helmet wearing rose from 16.0% to 21.8%. Pedestrian head injury admissions also declined but by a significantly smaller amount. The wearing of a cycle helmet is estimated to prevent 60% of head injuries.

Keywords: bicycle helmet; head injury; cyclists; pedestrians

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; ICD, International Classification of Diseases

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Purcell, L., Carson, J. (2008). Sport-Related Concussion in Pediatric Athletes. CLIN PEDIATR 47: 106-113  
• Lang, I. A (2007). Demographic, socioeconomic, and attitudinal associations with children's cycle-helmet use in the absence of legislation. Inj. Prev. 13: 355-358 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Wardlaw, M. (2004). Effectiveness of cycle helmets and the ethics of legislation. JRSM 97: 409-410 [Full Text]  
• Swanson, A., Cook, A., Ashcroft, R., Sheikh, A. (2004). Authors' reply. JRSM 97: 410-411 [Full Text]  
• Sheikh, A., Cook, A., Ashcroft, R. (2004). Making cycle helmets compulsory: ethical arguments for legislation. JRSM 97: 262-265 [Full Text]  
• Robinson, D L (2004). Reasons for trends in cyclist injury data. Inj. Prev. 10: 126-127 [Full Text]  

eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Policy must be evidence-based to succeed

Malcolm J Wardlaw

IP Online, 10 Dec 2003 [Full text]

Fundamental error in "Trends in serious head injuries..." Cook and Sheikh 2003

James D Annan

IP Online, 11 Jun 2004 [Full text]

IP is lacking objectivity

Avery Burdett

IP Online, 22 Jun 2004 [Full text]

Cycle helmets: time for a reality check

Guy Chapman

IP Online, 30 Jun 2004 [Full text]

Authors' reply

Adrian D Cook, et al.

IP Online, 22 Jul 2004 [Full text]

Another serious error in Cook & Sheikh's analysis

John Franklin, et al.

IP Online, 27 Jul 2004 [Full text]

Re: Authors' reply

Tony Raven

IP Online, 25 Aug 2004 [Full text]

Authors' second reply

Adrian D Cook, et al.

IP Online, 25 Aug 2004 [Full text]