A Study of the Effectiveness of Bicycle
Safety Helmets Among Children
in Skaraborg County, Sweden

Karolinska Institute, Department of Social Medicine, Kronan Health Center and Skaraborg County Council, Department of Health Promotion, Sit Olafsgatan 46, S-52135 Fallioping, Sweden

The County of Skaraborg is situated in the centre of western Sweden, and has an area of 8 210 square kilometers. The landscape is very flat with a few table top mountains. There are 17 rural municipalities, the smallest one containing 6 000 inhabitants and the largest with 47 000 inhabitants. The whole county comprises 273 000 inhabitants. 20.4 % are aged 0-14 years, slightly higher than the average level of Sweden. The average temperature is 6 degrees C. The county is well decentralized with a large amount of small density populated area and eight larger towns. The main Stockholm-Gothenburg road (E3) runs through the county, as well as the main railway line connecting Stockholm-Gothenburg. The county is both agricultural and industrial, consisting of heavy and light industry farming, forestry and tourism. There are three major hospitals, a primary health service with local health centres in every municipality, each having its own child health unit. The county has developed an accident prevention programme with special inter- section task groups in 10 municipalities.

BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION

Bicycle accidents with resulting head injuries lay claim to a large portion of hospital resources and the individual suffers heavily. Between 70 and 120 cyclists die per year in Sweden (1). The Skaraborg county council decided in 1987 to subsidised cycle helmets for the counties four year old children. The goal for research was to map out and evaluate the effect of subsidized cycle helmets to four years olds and the impact it may have had on reduction of head injuries resulting from cycling.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

The study comprises partly a survey of attitudes regarding the use of child safety helmets based on an random sample of 750 families, and partly data from the hospital's discharge register for children aged 0-14 years over a period of eleven years for bicycle accidents, single or due to collision with cars. All diagnoses have been studied with special focus on concussions. The response rate was 90 %.

RESULTS

The survey shows that almost 80 % of the children cycled before the age of five. The child health care organization recommended that children should not cycle before the age of five or six years: 40 % of the parents had the opinion that the price reduction of cycle helmets should be offered in safe areas for children below the age of four years old. This opinion is shared by the district nurses responsible for child safety information. 79 % of the surveyed children use cycle helmets and more than 50 % have used the County Council's subsidies of 70 SEK per helmet.

The studied group was very positive to the helmet subsidies. 94 % were positive to the use of helmets on small children.

The study of the hospital discharge register over eleven years on children (bicycle accidents) showed that the percentage was 40 % lower 1987-1989 than 1978-1980. The total reduction of hospital care cases for concussion was 121: 223 cases during the first period 1978-1980 and 102 during the later period 1987-1989. The reduction of in-patient care days due to cycle-accidents during the period 1987-1989 in comparison to 1978-1980 was 36 %. Parallel to this, the reduction of nursing days in hospital was 61 % for the same period. A comparison between the years 1989 and 1986 showed that the number of concussions per 1 000 children had been reduced by 25% from 50 to 37. Note that during this period, traffic work and speed had increased (2). After 1986 the use of cycle helmets among children increased distinctly and according to in care patient statistics it could be noted that injury cases of police reported accidents with personal injuries 1982-1989 in Skaraborg were above the national average and increased during the end of the period (3). The report showed the opposite, a decrease in the number of head injuries to children during this period. During the period 1978-1980 the average number of hospital care days for children 0-14 years (injured in cycle accidents) in Skaraborg was 434 at a cost of 995,000 SEK. During a comparable period 1987-1989 the cost was reduced to 336,000 SEK for 153 nursing days in hospital, a reduction of 619,000 SEK (9). The effect of better care and treatment, child safety information and the helmet campaign etc had led to a reduction of the total amount of nursing days in hospital by 238, for children involved in bicycle accidents during the period 1978-1989. Even such facts as weather, cycle sales, environmental improvements (separation of cycle and motor traffic) etc had a probable effect on the reduction of injuries caused by accidents (4, 5, 6). Head injuries earlier looked upon as rather slight are very expensive to treat, and can result in long term problems with concentration difficulties, aggressiveness, headaches, balance problems, light and sound sensitivity problems for years ahead (7).

DISCUSSION

The National Board of Traffic Safety estimates that there will be approximately 120,000 more children in the age bracket 0-15 by the year 2000, compared to 1989 for the whole of Sweden (2). For Skaraborg the estimation would be about 4,100 more children by the year 2000. With the present ambition on child safety work, we estimate higher costs for community and hospital care in the future. Approx. 10% of hospital care in Sweden is used for treatment of accidental injuries. A large proportion of the specialized resources and high cost units as neuro- and thorax surgery clinics and orthopedic units and intensive care units are needed for traffic accidents (8). To this date the helmet subsidy scheme in Skaraborg County has amounted to approx SEK 250,000 per year. For this amount one could provide hospital care for four severely head-injured children, 28 days for each. If the child is severely injured and requires regional hospital care the cost would increase from SEK 2,200 per day to SEK 5,700 at a neurological clinic (9, 10). The county administrative board of traffic safety has estimated that the total costs for all types of traffic accidents on the state roads of the county are for 1988 SEK 740 million in human and material loss (11). A study from Lidkoping community shows that only 10-31% of road traffic accidents are reported by the police authorities, which means the total costs are much more than those stated (12).

CONCLUSION

Against the background of the above study one can see the importance of stimulating and increasing traffic safety measures such as early usage of safety helmets, especially when 80% of children two, three and four years old use two-wheelers in traffic situations. This should mean that the County Council's subsidy on helmets should be reformed to cover even age groups under the age of four.

Small children have become more frequent in traffic situations, even as passengers on adult cycles. A fact to keep in mind is that the subsidy system has the effect that a large group of children, is given aleading role as trend-setters using good head protection while cycling. An expansion would mean a strengthening of this behaviour. From the parents responses one can conclude that most children with helmets use them. In most cases when children have been involved in traffic accidents, the helmet has probably prevented or reduced the extent of injury. The study s conclusion is that extended investment in cycle safety for all children is worth its price. It reduces, human suffering, reduces costs for the individuals, hospital care and community. Production losses due to parents care of their injured children are also reduced. Preventative measures lead to reduction of care-related costs for the County Council and enable other important health programs to become possible. The National Home and School Alliance (Hem och skola) has expressed its support for extensive use of cycle helmets in line with this study (13). The County Council decided 1990-10-01 with this study as a base for its decision, to extend the helmet campaign (subsidy offer) to cover two additional groups: nine-month-old children and two-and-a-half-year-olds. This offer is a combined effort of the Skaraborg Traffic Safety Association and a local insurance company in Skaraborg.

Work is under way with an extensive study followed by a final report. This study will be extended with data from a number of control areas (other County Councils) and national statistics referring to cycle accidents involving children and statistics from the hospital district register. Even other facts that may have affected the accident situation will be included.

REFERENCES

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2. Svenska Trafiksakerhetsradet. Trafiksakerhetsprogram 1990. Borlange 1990. (In Swedish)

3. Skaraborgs Trafiksakerhetsférbund. Verksamhetsplan 1991. Mariestad 1990. (In Swedish)

4. Statens Metereologiska och Hydrologiska Institut. Klimatsarnwanstallning 1978-1989.

Norrkdping 1990. (In Swedish)

5. Svenska Cykelfabrikant- och Grossistféreningen. Utleveranser till detaljhandeln av cvklar

1978-1989. Stockholm 1990. (in Swedish)

6. Konsumentverket. Personligt meddelande 1990. Stockholm 1990. (In Swedish)

7. Konsumentverket. Personligt meddelande 1990. Stockholm 1990. (In Swedish)

8. Bjaras, G, Schelp, L, Svanstrom, L. Att registrera och forebvgga olvcksfall. Tidens forlag,

FoLksarn, Socialstyrelsen. Stockholm 1989. (In Swedish)

9. Landstingsforbundet. Ersattning for kirurgisk slutenvard enligt riksavtal 1989. Stockholm

1990. (In Swedish)

10. Goteborgs sjukvardsforvaltning. Debitering for genomsnittlig regionsjukvard 1989. Goteborg

1990. (In Swedish)

11. Lansstyrelsen i Skaraborg. Trafiksakerbetsprogram for Skaraborgs lan 1990-1992. Mariestad

1989. (In Swedish)

12. Schelp, L. and Ekman, R. "Road Traffic Accidents in a Swedish Municipalitv". Public Health.

104,55-64, 1990.

13. Riksforbundet Hem och Skola. Protokoll gallande motion 95 om cvkelhjalmar. Uddevalla 1990

(In Swedish)