Eight out of ten sports-related spinal injuries involve cycling, according to the latest research from Harvard University, and the vast majority of those rest in collisions involving motor vehicles, leading the study’s authors to suggest that better cycle lanes and driver education, as well as helmet advocacy, can help reduce the number of incidents.
The study, published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, also found that one in three patients with sports-related trauma had spinal injuries, including fractured vertebrae and damage to the spinal cord.
The actors say that the findings will help influence policy, including how to prevent such injuries while making cycling safer.
The researchers analysed 80,000 hospital records, from 2011 to 2014, relating to patients discharged for rehabilitation following injuries sustained from sports, and identified 12,031 cases of traumatic spinal injury (TSI).
Men made up the majority of these patients, with 82 per cent, and 81 per cent of the injuries related to cycling, and skiing and snowboarding following at 12 per cent.
The study refers throughout to sports-related injuries, but the data for cycling encompasses all forms of riding bikes, including on the road for commuting or going to the shops.
It noted that most sports-related TSIs were from motor vehicle-related cycling accidents, in which the patient was not operating the vehicle.
“Although many cities with a high volume of traffic acknowledge the importance of helmet safety and have initiated measures to curb motor vehicle-related cycling accidents, including protected bike lanes and helmet laws, there is still a clear disparity between policy and TSI occurrence,” it said.
Previous studies have shown a discrepancy between cyclists and bikers who acknowledge the importance of wearing a helmet versus actually choosing to wear one, suggesting that helmet advocacy initiatives may improve rates of helmet use.
“In conjunction with interventions such as improving bike lanes and educating motorists, helmet advocacy may help to reduce the incidence of cycling-related TSIs.”
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