Re: endless helmet discussions

ilaboo said:

check out this site re medical literature on bicycle head injuries
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez

Problem with PubMed is you typically only get abstracts and you don't
get critique. So you see, for example, Thompson, Ribara & Thompson's
1989 Magnum Opus "A case controlled study of the effectiveness of
bicycle safety helmets" says there's an 85% reduction in Nastiness and
you think, "hey, that's a big number, in a respectable peer reviewed
journal!" and it turns up again in the Cochrane Review, so it must be
good, and so on.

But actually read it and you find the figure comes from a method which
boils down to comparing poor kids riding alone or with peers on busy
urban streets and affluent kids riding with their parents in parks and
assuming all of the difference is down to the latter group wearing
helmets...

In short, PubMed online is a start, but nothing more. There's
considerably more detail including critique at www.cyclehelmets.org

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

peter

i agree it is only a start but at least it's something

idealy is to get access to emergency room data and ic9 codes

point is that there are studies and data is collected continuosly.

most of us believe that helmets do gives us an edge in a very dangerous
world--the streets

peter

ilaboo said:

i agree it is only a start but at least it's something

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing... it can lean you to an
entirely false conclusion.

Quoted message said:

point is that there are studies and data is collected continuosly.

if you look at studies based on continual data gathering (typically
whole population studies, as governments collect and collate road
traffic accident data) then you get to see the picture that helmets
don't appear to make any clear difference to serious head injuries.

Quoted message said:

most of us believe that helmets do gives us an edge in a very dangerous
world--the streets

For some values of "most": in many countries, including those with the
lowest serious head injury rates, helmet wearing amongst
transportational cyclists is very much in the minority.
And what "most of us believe" isn't necessarily what happens, and if you
look at the whole population studies you can see pretty good evidence
that a helmet doesn't actually increase your chances. if it did, they'd
be making a clear dent in the figures, but they don't.

I used to believe a helmet gave me an edge, but I was challenged to look
at the research closely (not just a few selected abstracts, but the
whole papers, which is relatively easy as I've got a medical research
library a few minutes from my desk with full access to many publications
the general public can only get abstracts for). I went in to prove what
an idiot the guy challenging me was, but came out realising the evidence
I had counted on until then was at best half baked.

There is no clear evidence I've seen that helmets really do give an edge
on the streets, and I've looked quite hard. That is why I stopped
wearing one.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/