Objective To (i) identify person, vehicle and environmental risk factors for injury among children using motorcycles, and (ii) identify and appraise studies of interventions designed to reduce the occurrence or severity of injury among children using these vehicles.

Method A systematic approach was used to collate data from published and grey literature globally on risk factors for motorcycles injury, and studies reporting evaluation of interventions to counter this injury. Academic data sets and public search engines (including Google and Yahoo!) were used. Websites of major conferences, organisations and networks were also searched. Finally, researchers and units working in this area were also contacted by email or phone seeking relevant research. All study types were eligible, excluding clinical case studies. The Haddon Matrix was used as a framework for synthesising the data.

Results The review revealed that robust investigations of risk factors for injury among children using motorcycles are relatively scarce, and there are few interventional studies reporting effectiveness of countermeasures to this problem. Epidemiological literature is generally limited to discussion of human factors, and less attention has been given to vehicle and environmental factors. Furthermore, much of the literature is commentaries and descriptive studies. There has been little rigorous study of risk factors unique to children riding motorcycles.

Conclusions This first attempt at extensively reviewing literature related to risk factors and interventions for children and motorcycles using the Haddon Matrix as a framework clearly highlights need for more rigorous study as information is lacking in all cells of this matrix.