Boss said. “The brain is a very vulnerable organ with limited capacity to recover. If you fall from a bike and sustain a brain injury, this has long-term consequences. And a large proportion of people who fall while cycling have brain injury.”
I would question such a claim because approximately 13 million Dutch people cycle and they have about 13000 admissions per year. The number of falls may be 100 times higher than admissions.
Assuming 1.3 million falls per year. Assuming 10% of admissions had a moderate TBI, 1300 cases (one report states 8016 cases, Reuvers et al 2020).
For definition of TBI see
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK5 ... n%20tissue.
From the assumed 1,300,000 falls, 1300 moderate TBI cases, 0.1% of falls having a moderate TBI brain injury.
The quote
And a large proportion of people who fall while cycling have brain injury
appears invalid.
e-bikes has increased and older people tending to cycle more, adding to accident statistics.
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _warranted Table 4 shows cycling in the Netherlands had increased by 19.4%. per person and 32% overall increase.(13 to 17.6 billion km).
NL has about 1 admission per 1000 people who cycle and helmet promotion will have a discouraging effect, as well as increasing the accident rate.
If you fall from a bike and sustain a brain injury, this has long-term consequences
It was reported that from 150 children admitted in Brisbane, 143 may a good recovery. It looks like the author is being quite selective and misleading in the claims made.
In a Western Australian study by Baschera et al of 15yo+ cyclists admitted to the RPH trauma unit they found 88% of TBIs were mild among both helmet wearers and non-wearers, 3% were moderate among helmet wearers vs 10% moderate among non-wearers, and 9% were severe among helmet wearers vs 2% among non-wearers.
Therefore the assumption that helmets use will provide a major benefit is in question.
