The study is the first of its kind to look at how school-based
safety programs can change childrens behavior over the long
term, say Sallie E. Davis Kirsch, Ph.D., R.N., of the University
of Washington and colleagues. Children who participated in the
program also received custom-fit helmets, suggesting that
accessibility to helmets is a necessary supplement to education
to produce behavioral change, Kirsch and colleagues say. Almost
two-thirds of the children said they wore a helmet on their most
recent ride, and nearly 70 percent of those said they used the
helmets they received in the safety program. Children in schools
with the safety program were significantly more likely to wear
helmets than children outside the program, according to the
researchers. Head traumas result from 140,000 bicycle accidents
annually, and 252 children die from these injuries each year.
Previous studies have shown that proper use of bicycle helmets
can reduce the risk of brain injury in a bicycle crash by
between 74 percent and 8