Bicycle Accidents Among Kids Adding Up to Huge Hospital Bills

On Oct. 15, the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) issued a press release about a first of its kind study of bicycle accidents among children and adolescents age 20 and under. The researchers looked at the nature of the injuries suffered, the medical costs incurred, and possible prevention.

According to Firehouse.com Safe Kids, bicycles are associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except the automobile. Further, more than 70 percent of kids 5 to 14 years of age ride bicycles. CIRP reports that bicycle riders under age 21 make up more than half of the nearly 85 million bicycle riders in the U.S.

In terms of bicycle-related injuries, no other recreational sport results in more emergency room visits for children. As far as hospitalizations for injuries go, the researchers at CIRP found that approximately 10,700 children in the U.S. are hospitalized every year as a result of bicycle crashes. Of those hospitalizations examined, all were stays of at least three days. The researchers also found that motor vehicles were involved in about a third of the bicycle-related hospitalizations. Also, the younger the child, the more often motor vehicles were involved.

Firehouse.com Kids Safe says that head injury is the leading cause of death in bicycle accidents, versus internal or other injuries. More specifically, whenever there is a death or permanent disability as a result of a bicycle crash, it resulted from a head injury.

Dr. Gary Smith is the Director of CIRP and also on the faculty of The Ohio State University College of Medicine. He said that "the high rate of hospitalization and use of healthcare resources identified in our study supports the need for increased attention to bicycle-related injuries." In fact, the study found, bicycle-related injuries among children and adolescents in the U.S. may be a more significant public health concern than previously believed, not just because of the number of incidents, but also because the injuries among children and adolescents result in nearly $200 million in hospital inpatient charges every year.

Much like the statistics of Firehouse.com Safe Kids, the researchers at CIRP found that about a third of the children hospitalized after a bicycle accident suffered traumatic brain injury. This figure and the figures from Firehouse.com Safe Kids strongly suggest that a number of these injuries may be preventable if children used bicycle helmets.

Smith says "the findings from our study can be used to promote targeted prevention strategies to lessen the severity of injury and the number of deaths resulting from pediatric bicycle-related injuries. We know that bicycle helmets can reduce the risk of brain injury by up to 85%. We need to increase efforts to promote helmet use by children riding bicycles." Firehouse.com Safe Kids says that head injuries account for more than 60 percent of bicycle-related deaths, which is more than 65 percent of bicycle-related hospital admissions and about 33 percent of hospital emergency room visits for bicycling injuries. Along with Smith, the website asserts that the single most effective safety device available to reduce head injury and death from bicycle crashes is a helmet. Further, experts say, bicycle education programs and mandatory bicycle helmet legislation are effective at increasing helmet use and, therefore, reducing bicycle-related death and injury.

Sources:

Press release, "Pediatric Bicycle-related Injuries Result in Nearly $200 Million in Hospital Charges Annually;" http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/534355/

Firehouse.com Safe Kids; http://www.firehouse.com/safekids/factsheets/bike_inj.html