Public Health Bicycle Helmet Campaign Proposal

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamara L. Mangum
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Bicycle Helmet

Bicycle Helmet Law for Children: A Case Study of Activism in Injury Control

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 89 (6) ◽  
pp. 1248-1250
Author(s):  
Peter C. Scheidt ◽  
Modena H. Wilson ◽  
Melvin S. Stern
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Control Measure ◽  
Head Injuries ◽  
Bicycle Helmet ◽  
Helmet Use ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Community Activists ◽  
Injury Control

In 1990, the first regulation requiring the use of helmets for bicyclists younger than 16 years of age was passed in Howard County, Maryland. This unexpected injury control measure resulted from the convergence of multiple factors and efforts: the bicycle-related deaths of two children from the same middle school, creative students and teachers motivated by these deaths, a responsive legislator to introduce the legislation, available surveillance and research statistics supporting the need and efficacy for helmet use, increased national awareness of the importance of helmet use to prevent bicycle-related head injuries, and organized national and local public health groups to support the legislation. This case study of activism in injury control illustrates the importance of supporting research, of well-organized public health coalitions and groups, and of creative community activists motivated by local circumstances.

Bicycle helmet wearing is associated with closer overtaking by drivers: A response to Olivier and Walter, 2013

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Walker ◽  
Dorothy Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Public Health Research ◽  
Bicycle Helmet ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Driver Behaviour ◽  
Near Misses ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Sufficient Statistical Power

There is a body of research on how driver behaviour might change in response to bicyclists’ appearance. In 2007, Walker published a study suggesting motorists drove closer on average when passing a bicyclist if the rider wore a helmet, potentially increasing the risk of a collision. Olivier and Walter re-analysed the same data in 2013 and claimed helmet wearing was not associated with close vehicle passing. Here we show how Olivier and Walter’s analysis addressed a subtly, but importantly, different question than Walker’s. Their conclusion was based on omitting information about variability in driver behaviour and instead dividing overtakes into two binary categories of ‘close’ and ‘not close’; we demonstrate that they did not justify or address the implications of this choice, did not have sufficient statistical power for their approach, and moreover show that slightly adjusting their definition of ‘close’ would reverse their conclusions. We then present a new analysis of the original dataset, measuring directly the extent to which drivers changed their behaviour in response to helmet wearing. This analysis confirms that drivers did, overall, get closer when the rider wore a helmet. The distribution of overtaking events shifted just over one-fifth of a standard deviation closer to the rider – a potentially important behaviour if, as theoretical frameworks suggest, near-misses and collisions lie on a continuum. The paper ends by considering wider issues surrounding this topic and suggests public health research might be best served by shifting focus to risk elimination rather than harm mitigation.

Mandatory Bicycle Helmet Laws in the United States: Origins, Context, and Controversies

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (8) ◽  
pp. 1198-1204
Author(s):  
Kathleen Bachynski ◽  
Alison Bateman-House
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Head Injuries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Bicycle Helmet ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Bicycle Safety ◽  
Helmet Laws

This article examines the origins and context of mandatory bicycle helmet laws in the United States. Localities began to enact such laws in the early 1990s, having experimented with helmet laws for motorcycles previously. As cycling became increasingly popular in the 1970s and 1980s because of a variety of historical trends, from improved cycle technology to growing environmental consciousness, cycling-related injuries also increased. Bicycle safety advocates and researchers alike were particularly troubled by head injuries. National injury surveillance systems and a growing body of medical literature on bicycle-related injuries motivated a number of physicians, cyclists, children, and other community members to advocate helmet laws, which they argued would save lives. Controversy over these laws, particularly over whether they should apply universally or only to children, raised public health ethics concerns that persist in contemporary debates over bicycle helmet policies. (Am J Public Health. 2020;110:1198–1204. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.305718)

Public Health and Newborn Hearing Screening

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Terrey Oliver Penn ◽  
Susan E. Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Hearing Screening ◽  
Newborn Hearing Screening ◽  
Newborn Hearing
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