Brief communication and research note
A case-control study of child bicycle injuries: relationship of risk to exposure

https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-4575(95)00032-1Get rights and content

Abstract

In order to assess the relationship of the risk of injury requiring hospital attendance in children riding bicycles to sociodemographic factors and to measures of exposure, a population-based case-control study is being undertaken in a large area of suburban Melbourne, Australia. Particular attention is given to the measurement of individual exposure in several dimensions. Analysis of interim data from 109 cases and 118 controls shows that 51% of injuries occurred while the child was playing rather than making a trip on the bicycle and only 22% involved another vehicle. Boys used bicycles more commonly than girls but there was minimal evidence of an increased risk of injury in boys, adjusting for exposure. There was no evidence for an age trend in injury risk, but children from families in the lowest income category were at significantly increased risk. Exposure measures showed complex patterns of association with injury risk. Estimated time spent riding was more closely associated with risk than distance travelled, with an odds ratio of 2.2 (95% confidence interval 1.1–4.2) for children riding for more than 3 hours per week compared to children riding less than 1 hour. Riding more than 5 km on the sidewalk was also associated with increased risk (odds ratio 3.1, 95% CI 1.1–8.5). The elevated risk associated with sidewalk riding may be due to difficulties in negotiating uneven surfaces. The case-control study provides an ideal design for this type of investigation but valid and reliable measurement of exposure is difficult.

References (18)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (20)

  • Safety effects of paved shoulder width on a four-lane divided rural highway in India: A matched case-control study

    2022, Safety Science
    Citation Excerpt :

    Hence, the final database has 610 rows from which the cases and controls segments will be selected to create matched dataset for the explanatory model development. The case-control (C-C) method have been frequently used in the context of highway safety education of the road-users and vehicle characteristics (Abdel-Aty et al., 2004; Aldred et al., 2018; Carlin et al., 1995; Chen and Zhang, 2016; Hijar et al., 2000; Stein and Jones, 1988). However, very few studies have used the C-C method for assessing the safety effectiveness of the geometric elements of the highways.

  • The role of perceived competence and risk perception in cycling near misses

    2018, Safety Science
    Citation Excerpt :

    Research suggests that studies that intend to estimate the importance of factors other than exposure in crashes and injuries must control for exposure given to its overall effect on cycling safety and risk of crash and injury (Vanparijs et al., 2015). Moreover, its effect on crash and injury risk has been consolidated over the years by research (Carlin et al., 1995; Bacchieri et al., 2010). In the present study, we consider exposure at two different levels: (1) exposure to cycling in general, that is to say, use of the bicycle; and (2) cycling in mixed traffic situations.

  • A mixed generalized ordered response model for examining pedestrian and bicyclist injury severity level in traffic crashes

    2008, Accident Analysis and Prevention
    Citation Excerpt :

    In the rest of this section, we do not discuss studies such as those identified above that focus on crash occurrence/frequency or that focus on an aggregate level analysis of the characteristics of solely fatal crashes. We also do not examine studies attempting to measure pedestrian and bicyclist exposure data (see Jonah and Engel, 1983; Malek et al., 1990; Keall, 1995; Carlin et al., 1995; or Aultman-Hall and Kaltenecker, 1999 for exposure studies). Rather, we limit ourselves strictly to crash-level studies that examine non-motorist injury severity in accidents involving a non-motorist and a motorized vehicle.

  • Risk factors in highway traffic accidents: A case control study

    2000, Accident Analysis and Prevention
    Citation Excerpt :

    When adjusting these factors through the multiple regression model, significant risks for injuries due to traffic accidents were found related to: being under age 25 (OR 3.18, 1.53–6.57), followed by age over 45 (OR 1.78, 0.99–3.20); traveling for work reasons (OR 1.54, 0.94–2.52); alcohol intake (OR 5.02, 1.81–14.72); the Mexico–Cuernavaca road direction (OR 2.68, 1.67–4.33); on a week-day (OR 2.69, 1.66–4.38); during daylight hours (OR 4.16, 2.31–7.48) and under adverse climatological conditions (OR 5.56, 3.57–8.66) (Table 4.). Studies exist which have shown the usefulness (Carlin and Taylor 1995; Povey and Arsenault 1996; Stevenson et al. 1995) and at the same time the difficulties, involved in the application of case and control designs for the study of factors associated with the occurrence of traffic accidents, such as those in this study, above all in the definition and selection of the best control. However, in spite of the fact that the present study did allow us to have as a control, a population that was exposed to the whole highway and that managed to finish the trip without being involved in a traffic accident.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text