Bicycle helmet use among children in the United States: The effects of legislation, personal and household factors

Introduction

Children ages 5-14 years have the highest rate of bicycle-related injuries in the country. Bicycle helmets can prevent head and brain injuries, which represent the most serious type of bicycle-related injury.

Objectives

This paper compares children's bicycle helmet use to that estimated from an earlier study, and explores regional differences in helmet use by existing helmet legislation.

Methods

This study was a cross-sectional, list-assisted random-digit-dial telephone survey. Interviews were completed by 9,684 respondents during 2001-2003. The subset with at least one child in the household age 5-14 years (2,409 respondents) answered questions about bicycle helmet use for a randomly selected child in their household.

Results

Almost half (48%) of the children always wore their helmet, 23% sometimes wore their helmet, and 29% never wore their helmet. Helmet wearing was significantly associated with race, ethnicity, and child age but was not associated with the sex of the child. Other significant predictors of use included household income, household education, census region, and bicycle helmet law status. Statewide laws were more effective than laws covering smaller areas. The proportion of children who always wore a helmet increased from 25% in 1994 to 48% in 2001-2002. Significant increases in helmet use from 20% to 26% were seen among both sexes, younger (5-9 years) and older (10-14 years) children, and in all four regions of the country.

Conclusions

While there has been substantial progress in the number of children who always wear their helmets, more than half do not. Further progress will require using a combination of methods that have been shown to successfully promote consistent helmet use. Impact on industry: minimal.     

环境库兹涅茨曲线理论与国家环境法律间关系的研究

研究表明,经济发展与环境退化之间经常呈现倒U型曲线关系,许多学者将其定义为环境库兹涅茨曲线(EnvironmentalKuznets Curves,EKC),并将其运用到对发展中国家和发达国家的先污染,后治理的发展模式的解释之中。但是环境库兹涅茨曲线假说本身并不完善。在摒弃了传统计量模型指标后,以国家环境立法和国家环保投资作为目标研究EKC。结果表明,环境改善的重要条件是政府的支持,尤其是以环境法律的形式。