More Children Hospitalized from Bicycle Accidents Than Previously Thought

The cost of bicycle related injuries to children and adolescents are nearly $200 million in hospital inpatient charges every year. Researchers estimate that of the 85 million bicycle riders, approximately half of them are children or adolescents under 20 years old.

Researchers found that more than a third of those children who are hospitalized have received a traumatic brain injury. This type of injury is very serious and can cause cognitive, emotional, physical, and social problems.

Bicyclists can usually avoid this type of brain injuries by wearing a bicycle helmet at all times. Researchers want to promote strategies to lessen both the number and the severity of bicycle accidents and deaths.

Speaking about helmet use, they said that helmets could reduce the risk of injuring the brain by as much as 85 percent. Yet, everyday there are children in American who are riding bicycles without wearing any type of helmet or other protective device.

Bicycle accidents send more children to hospital emergency rooms than any other recreational sport in the United States. Nearly 10,700 children are hospitalized every year because of the injuries they suffered while riding their bicycles. The average stay is three days.

from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Researchers estimate that have of the 85 million bicycle riders in the U.S. are children or adolescents. "Bicycles are associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except the automobile. The high rate of hospitalization and use of healthcare resources identified in our study supports the need for increased attention to bicycle-related injuries," said Gary Smith, MD, who is the director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, and one of the authors of this study.

No other studies have analyzed the type of injuries that children and adolescents sustain from riding bicycles. Researchers found that 30 percent of all bicycle related hospitalizations involved an accident with a motor vehicle.

Younger children were not as prone to having accidents with motor vehicles, whereas older children who had an accident were more likely to be involved in an accident involving a motor vehicle.

Source:
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/534355/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traumatic_brain_injury