The case for bicycle helmet legislation just got stronger. Laws that require children to wear protective head gear result in lower injury rates for bicyclists, according to a new review of studies.
Anneliese Spinks, a research fellow in the Griffith University School of Medicine in Queensland, Australia, said most studies have found that helmet laws reduce injuries, but that not all studies have been considered statistically reliable.
"We searched to find the highest-quality evidence and it shows that with bicycle helmet legislation, head injuries decreased. By relying only on the highest-quality evidence, we hope to reduce some of the controversy over the issue," said Spinks, co-author of a new review of studies.
Some regions, including those in Australia, have established universal bike helmet laws, but legislation limited to children is more typical. The five studies included in the new review evaluated children-only bike-helmet laws.
The review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates research in all aspects of health care. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing trials on a topic.
Spinks' team looked for studies that included a comparison group to better gauge changes in an area where legislation was enacted versus an area where bike helmets were not required.
Three of the five studies were fielded in the United States, two in Canada. One of the largest studies examined hospital records of bike-related injuries in California over 10 years to assess that state's child helmet law.
The authors conclude that traumatic brain injury in youth cyclists dropped by more than 18 percent after the bike-helmet law was established.
A Canadian study of more than 9,700 bicycle-related hospital admissions compared injury rates in children in provinces throughout the country. Provinces that enacted helmet interventions saw childhood head injuries fall by 45 percent. There was a 27 percent decrease in provinces with no interventions in place.
Three studies also found that helmet laws, or helmet law enforcement, lead to significantly greater bike helmet use. The increases ranged from 45 percent to 84 percent.
Spinks said most scientists believe that bike helmets protect children and that legislation is effective in reducing injury rates. However, she believes bike-helmet laws will continue to be a hot debate topic because solid research remains scarce about some of the biggest objections.
Skeptics worry that the legislation will have unintended, adverse consequences.
One big concern is that some people will give up cycling to avoid wearing a helmet, and lose out on cycling's health benefits. But Spinks said, "There hasn't been a well-designed study that looked at what effects helmet legislation has on bicycle riding."
