Bicycle-related Injuries Among Preschool Children☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Injuries associated with bicycle riding are common in childhood. School-age children and adolescents seem to be at greatest risk, and injury-prevention efforts are often directed at them.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Preschool children also ride bicycles. It is estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 bicycles are sold each year for use by preschool-age children (personal communication, M Pippen, Schwinn Bicycle Company, February 1994). However, information concerning bicycle-related injuries among these young
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data on bicycle-related injuries to children aged 0 to 14 years were obtained from the National Pediatric Trauma Registry (NPTR) for the period January 1986 through June 1996. The NPTR is a multiinstitution database designed to record epidemiologic, demographic, and anatomic information on pediatric trauma.9 The participating centers include hospitals with pediatric trauma units and children's hospitals with trauma centers. These institutions report only patients who are admitted to the
RESULTS
During the 5-year study period, 4,041 children with bicycle-associated injuries were reported to the NPTR. Two hundred nineteen children (5%) were younger than 5 years (preschool or young children). One hundred fifty-five injured young children (71%) were boys; 2,875 injured older children (75%) were boys (P=.1).
Very few children in either age group wore a bicycle helmet (Table 1), although data were missing in many cases. A motor vehicle was involved in 31% of the injuries to young children.
DISCUSSION
Cycling is the third most popular sporting activity in the United States, and it is often a family activity.24 However, the circumstances and types of injuries among preschool cyclists has not been well addressed. We undertook this study to describe bicycle-associated injuries in young children and to compare injuries among young children with those among older children. The data indicate that bicycle-related injuries in hospitalized young children were of severity and outcome similar to those
Acknowledgements
We thank Mark Donovan for his assistance in statistical analysis.
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From the Divisions of Pediatric Emergency Medicine* and General Academic Pediatrics,‡ Children's Memorial Hospital, and the Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Medical School,§ Chicago, IL; and the Research and Training Center in Rehabilitation and Childhood Trauma, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Tufts/New England Medical Center, Boston, MA.∥
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Reprint no.47/1/83898
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Address for reprints: Elizabeth C Powell, MD, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Box 62, Children's Memorial Hospital, 2300 Children's Plaza, Chicago, IL 60614, 773-880-8245, Fax 773-880-8267