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Risk of death is a only one metric for evaluating helmet use, and it's arguably a poor one since it is relatively uncommon (partly thanks to medical interventio

Risk of death is a only one metric for evaluating helmet use, and it's arguably a poor one since it is relatively uncommon (partly thanks to medical intervention). In addition to death, bicycle accidents can also cause varying degrees of physical and mental debilitation. One of the most important things to examine in the discussion of helmet use is the risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Helmets do help there, significantly [1]. From the cited article: "[...] One third of the cyclists who are admitted to hospital with serious injury after a traffic crash are diagnosed with head/brain injury. Approximately three-quarters of these cyclists sustain this head/brain injury in crashes not involving a motor vehicle. As many as nine out of ten young children who sustain head/brain injury, do so in crashes not involving a motor vehicle. In the majority of cases these are bicycle-only crashes. Research has shown that a bicycle helmet provides protection against serious head and brain injury. The most recent estimate (Elvik, 2011) indicates that the risk of head injuries is 1.72 times higher for cyclists not wearing a helmet than it is for cyclists who do wear a helmet, with a 95% confidence interval of 1.33-2.22. For brain injury the risk seems to be 2.13 times higher, with a 95% confidence interval of 1.33-3.45. [...]" There are many other studies, with the overwhelming majority pointing to helmets being significantly protective against TBIs: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=bicycle+helmet+traumatic+brain+injury http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=bicycle+helmet+trau... If you're going to be hit by a truck, there's only so much you can do. In the more likely scenario where you're falling to the ground and will hit your head, a helmet will most likely help your outcome. I for one don't want to live with a debilitating and irreversible brain injury, so I always cycle with a helmet. 1. https://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheets/UK/FS_Bicycle_helmets.pdf https://www.swov.nl/rapport/Factsheets/UK/FS_Bicycle_helmets...

sebular 11y ago
So you've provided a more thorough version of the "No matter what you say about big-picture statistics, you'd still be safer wearing a helmet" argument. I don't have any problem with you choosing to wear a helmet because you want to avoid TBI, but unless you're also wearing a helmet every time you get in a car, you're behaving irrationally. Also, here's another study and some choice quotes: "Use of a helmet was only associated with a 10% decreased risk of severe injury, a difference which was not statistically significant." "Patients with neck injuries were much more likely to be severly injured (OR=4.09) and hospitalized (OR=2.56) than were patients without neck injuries. They were also 15 times more likely to die than those without neck injuries [...] There was no association of neck injury with helmet use, either in the entire group of patients with neck injury (OR=0.9, 95% CI 0.6 to 1.4, adjusted for age)" "Males were 2.4 times more likely, those hit by motor vehicles 14.1 times more likely, and those traveling at self reported speeds > 15 mph, 2.6 times more likely to be killed." 1. http://bmj-injuryprev.highwire.org/content/3/2/110.full.pdf http://bmj-injuryprev.highwire.org/content/3/2/110.full.pdf The point is that when you're cycling or doing any activity, you expose yourself to a combination of risks. I've never argued that helmet use isn't a valid way to decrease certain risks (I wear mine daily when commuting in traffic, and sometimes when hitting the bike path out of the city I leave it at home), but it's detrimental that we focus on that as the only cause of risk, because it causes people to ignore everything else. People like telling other people to wear helmets because it's an easy solution. But it only (kind of) solves one problem, and even worse, it's used as a scapegoat, a means to blame the victim. A woman gets flattened into 2 dimensions by a tractor trailer while riding her bike, but what's this? She wasn't wearing her helmet?? Come on people, wear your helmet! It's as if we were to address the entire issue of auto safety with "wear a seatbelt!" and considered the matter closed even if a kid who's never driven before is going 100mph through a residential neighborhood with his eyes closed.

sebular 11y ago

So you've provided a more thorough version of the "No matter what you say about big-picture statistics, you'd still be safer wearing a helmet" argument. I don't have any problem with you choosing to wear a helmet because you want to avoid TBI, but unless you're also wearing a helmet every time you get in a car, you're behaving irrationally. Also, here's another study and some choice quotes: "Use of a helmet was only associated with a 10% decreased risk of severe injury, a difference which was not statistically significant." "Patients with neck injuries were much more likely to be severly injured (OR=4.09) and hospitalized (OR=2.56) than were patients without neck injuries. They were also 15 times more likely to die than those without neck injuries [...] There was no association of neck injury with helmet use, either in the entire group of patients with neck injury (OR=0.9, 95% CI 0.6 to 1.4, adjusted for age)" "Males were 2.4 times more likely, those hit by motor vehicles 14.1 times more likely, and those traveling at self reported speeds > 15 mph, 2.6 times more likely to be killed." 1. http://bmj-injuryprev.highwire.org/content/3/2/110.full.pdf http://bmj-injuryprev.highwire.org/content/3/2/110.full.pdf The point is that when you're cycling or doing any activity, you expose yourself to a combination of risks. I've never argued that helmet use isn't a valid way to decrease certain risks (I wear mine daily when commuting in traffic, and sometimes when hitting the bike path out of the city I leave it at home), but it's detrimental that we focus on that as the only cause of risk, because it causes people to ignore everything else. People like telling other people to wear helmets because it's an easy solution. But it only (kind of) solves one problem, and even worse, it's used as a scapegoat, a means to blame the victim. A woman gets flattened into 2 dimensions by a tractor trailer while riding her bike, but what's this? She wasn't wearing her helmet?? Come on people, wear your helmet! It's as if we were to address the entire issue of auto safety with "wear a seatbelt!" and considered the matter closed even if a kid who's never driven before is going 100mph through a residential neighborhood with his eyes closed.