Bicycle injuries in Western Sweden: a comparison between counties.

The objectives of the study were to investigate whether there are differences in the incidence of bicycle-related injuries by geographic district (county), age, and gender in Sweden's Western Road Administration Region, and to utilize any detected differences to suggest priorities for intervention and prevention. Injury data come from the Swedish national hospital-discharge registry and a specialized national register of occupational injuries. Both bodily injuries in general and head injuries in particular show intra-regional differences. The rural part of Skaraborg County was shown to have a significantly higher injury incidence than other parts of the Western Region. Females generally show a lower incidence than males, but older women are more likely to be seriously injured than younger (age-related differences being greater than for males). Some striking findings were found with regard to occupational differences. Females sustain more work-related bicycle injuries than males. Head injuries account for more than half of the bicycle injuries in the Western Region that require hospitalization. All this indicates that targeted measures are required. Some studies have shown that the use of bicycle helmets reduces the incidence of head injuries, the degree of their severity, and the number of bicycle-related fatalities. There is a need for mandatory helmet-wearing legislation, which must go hand-in-hand with special efforts to reach groups with a low rate of helmet wearing, in particular those in the middle age range. Although the grown-up/older cycling population has been the subject of targeted action in some countries, the focus of preventive activity has generally been on children. The results of the study suggest the need for further injury-related research into adult cycling.