Kids Dodging Helmet Use

July 19, 2002 -- It's not just young bike riders that scoff at wearing helmets. A new report shows that no matter what the mode of transportation -- bicycle, scooter, inline skates, or skateboard -- few children are protecting themselves from serious head injuries by wearing a helmet.

But convincing children to wear helmets may be as easy as getting their parents to wear them. Researchers found children riding with parents who wore helmets were six times as likely to wear helmets themselves compared with those riding alone.

Bicycle collisions alone account for more than 500,000 emergency room visits and 700 deaths each year. And more than half of those injuries occur among children under age 15. Researchers say injuries caused by inline skating, scooters, and skateboards are also increasing as the popularity of these sports rise.

The study, published in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, compared observed helmet use across these four leisure activities among children in several Texas communities. The researchers found the number of riders who wore a helmet didn't vary much between the different activities and averaged around only 14% of all riders.

Scooter riders were the least likely to wear helmets (12%), and they were also most likely to wear their helmets incorrectly -- tilted forward or backward or not strapped under the chin rather than positioned in a straight, horizontal line on the head and securely fastened.

In addition, researchers found helmet use was influenced by whether a child's companions were also using one. All children riding a bicycle or scooter wore helmets when all of their peers also wore them.

Overall, inline skaters were the most likely to wear helmets (18%). And all the children seen inline skating with adults who were using helmets also wore helmets, compared with only 16% of children skating alone.

Study author Samuel N. Forjuoh, MB, DrPH, of the Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, and colleagues say the findings show that it's not enough to target children alone in promoting helmet use. If parents take the lead in wearing helmets and encouraging helmet use, they write, their children will likely follow.