Prevent
Injuries With Proper Sports Helmet Fitting
Study Shows Most Lack Skill
Dr. Gregory Parkinson spent
the better part of a decade completing his medical training and now is
a practicing pediatrician, yet he says it took him about 12 years before
he learned how to put his bicycle helmet on properly.
The light bulb moment came
when he was on vacation and got help from a man renting bicycles.
Now Dr. Parkinson is on a quest of sorts to show kids
and parents how to master this task.
In a new study reported in the medical journal
Pediatrics, Dr. Parkinson shows that an overwhelming
majority of children, adolescents, and parents cannot properly fit a bicycle
helmet.
"I don't think anyone was surprised
that helmets are somewhat difficult to fit," Dr. Parkinson says.
"I strongly suspected that the majority would have difficulty. I
didn't think 96 percent would have difficulty."
Virtually everyone agrees that wearing a helmet while
riding a bike, scooter, skateboard, or while in-line skating is good
practice.
According to the US Consumer Product
Safety Commission (CPSC), about 900 people - including more than
200 children - are killed every year in bicycle-related accidents, and
about 60 percent of these fatalities involve head injuries.
According to the latest statistics available, about
4,000 head injuries resulted from in-line skating. And in 1999, an estimated
59,000 skateboard injuries occurred, about 7 percent of them involving
the head.
"We know that helmets prevent head injury,
and we want more people to wear them," says CPSC
spokesman Ken Giles.
The CPSC states that wearing
a helmet can reduce the risk of head injury from bicycle accidents by
up to 85 percent. But that is only if you are wearing it properly.
Pediatrician
Takes The Initiative
To find out how many people were wearing
helmets correctly, Dr. Parkinson launched a study in his own private
practice in Falmouth, Mass. He recruited 395 families, with 479 children
in those families.
While at their regular pediatric visit, the participants
filled out a questionnaire and then were timed while they tried to fit
a helmet. Dr. Parkinson and his staff then evaluated how they did.
Eighty-eight percent of the children involved owned
a bicycle helmet. Almost three-quarters of cyclists responded that they
"always" or "almost always" used a helmet, while
69 percent of in-line skaters, 58 percent of scooter riders, and 50
percent of skateboarders provided this response.
Teenagers were less likely than younger children to
wear a helmet.
Almost all (90 percent) felt it was easy or pretty easy
to fit a helmet.
However, only 4 percent of the participants passed the
test. When the parent alone fitted the helmet, nobody passed.
The three main difficulties were the helmet resting
too high on the forehead, improper strap positions, and excessive movement
of the helmet from the front to the back of the head.
Why is it that so few are getting it right?
"There are a number of reasons," Dr. Parkinson
explains, "but the main one is having someone who knows how spending
the time to teach you. Traditionally this has been done well in bicycle
shops, but the majority of helmets are purchased elsewhere. It's not
unusual to get more help fitting a pair of shoes than a helmet."
A common problem is the straps, which often are not
adjusted correctly. Dr. Parkinson suggests helmet manufacturers could
"devise a new system" making them easier to adjust.
Guidelines
Made Simple
Dr. Parkinson revisited guidelines issued
by the Harvard Research Center in Seattle, which published the original
study on helmet effectiveness.
He then developed his own mantra: Be a Bike Helmet MVP.
M: Move it down the forehead (less than two fingers'
width above the brow).
V: The straps should make a "V" around the ear.
P: Pull the chinstraps snugly.
"If you can do those three things in that order, it substantially
improves safety," Dr. Parkinson says.
The key is to do them in order. The MVP slogan is now
on posters in schools throughout Dr. Parkinson's town.
Dr. Parkinson suggests that once the straps are adjusted
well, parents should tie them in place with a rubber band. They will
not have to be adjusted more than once each year, even for kids, he
says.
The CPSC agrees that if
helmets are effective, they have to cover the skull as completely as possible.
"Some people wear it sunbonnet style, kind of pushed
up and on the back of head, and that's just not effective," Mr.
Giles says. "It has to be flat on the head. The straps should make
a V around the ears and the straps should be snug."
Always consult your child's physician for more information.
Online
Resources
Bicycle
Helmet Safety Institute
Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
National
Institute of Health (NIH)
National
Library of Medicine, at NIH
US Consumer
Product Safety Commission
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