Only 11 percent of children in bike accidents wear helmets, a new study found, emphasizing the need for new educational strategies that reinforce the importance of wearing bike helmets.
Despite the Californian government making it mandatory to wear bike helmets, a new study found that only 11 percent of children treated for bike injuries were found wearing a helmet. The findings presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando also revealed that children from low-income and minority families and those above the age of 12 were more likely not to wear helmets while riding bikes.
"Our study highlights the need to target minority groups, older children, and those with lower socioeconomic status when implementing bicycle safety programs in Los Angeles County," said study author Veronica F. Sullins, MD.
For the study, researchers reviewed the records of all pediatric patients involved in bicycle-related accidents from the Los Angeles County database between 2006 and 2011 and found 1,248 children involved in such accidents. The average age of these children was 13 and over 64 percent were males. The researchers also noted some ethnic-based differences among the 11.3 percent of children who were wearing helmets when in a bike accident. Of these 35.2 percent were whites, 7 percent Asian, 6 percent blacks and 4 percent were Hispanic children.
There was also a marked difference in this percentage based of the type of insurance. While 15.2 percent of children with private insurance coverage wore helmets, only 7 percent of children with public insurance coverage did the same. Overall, 5.9 percent of the injured children required emergency surgery, and 34.1 percent of the children returned to their pre-injury capacity. The mortality rate was 0.7 percent. Of the nine patients who died, eight were not wearing a helmet.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention states that 33 million children ride bikes for an average of 10 billion hours in the United States. Injuries sustained from bike accidents result in more than 150,000 emergency department visits and nearly 400 deaths each year.
"Children and adolescents have the highest rate of unintentional injury and therefore should be a high priority target population for injury-prevention programs," Dr. Sullins concluded.
A study conducted by the University of Wisconsin researchers earlier this July found that the type and brand of helmet a person wears doesn't reduce the risk of concussions. Therefore, even while wearing a helmet children need to be careful while riding bikes and parents need to be extra vigilant about where and how their kids ride their bikes.
