Helmet Use Not 鈥楽olve-All' Solution for Preventing TBI

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Wearing a helmet can reduce the chances of sustaining a traumatic brain injury (TBI), but helmets cannot completely prevent them. While more people used helmets between 2004 and 2010, ESPN has reported that according to a new study, skiing and snowboarding-related head injuries in the United States increased during the same period. The study, which was presented at the American College of Emergency Physicians annual Scientific Assembly conference in Denver, used data from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission鈥檚 National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). NEISS estimates that there were 68,761 head injuries sustained while skiing or snowboarding from 2004-2010. The study 鈥減rompted a surprising number of questions from the press鈥?about whether helmets are even worth wearing, study author Dr. Mark Christensen told ESPN. Christensen,motorcycle gear, a resident physician in the Emergency Medicine department at Western Michigan University, told ESPN that such questions miss the point, because statistics on injuries in children under the age of 10 confirm the effectiveness of helmets. That was the only age group in the study to buck the trend, significantly decreasing from 11.7 percent of all reported head injuries to just 4.6 percent over the period of the study. 鈥淗elmets are important and probably prevent a lot of serious injuries,hjc helmets,鈥?Christensen told ESPN. 鈥淏ut I鈥檝e seen other studies showing that helmet wearers are more likely to take more risks, so there's a need there for more education and recognizing that skiing or snowboarding safely and wearing a helmet is what's going to prevent injuries, not just wearing helmets alone.鈥?/p> Christensen emphasized that the authors of the study were not trying to say helmets are bad, but also noted that helmet use is not a 鈥渟olve-all solution鈥?since most consumer-level helmets are only designed to prevent injury at impact in the 12-15 mile per hour range. 鈥淲e should approach helmet use like we approach wearing seatbelts in a car: Just because we鈥檙e wearing a seatbelt doesn鈥檛 mean we can drive recklessly,鈥?Christensen told ESPN. Tom Doehrman Doehrman Chamberlain Related Articles - traumatic brain injury, american college of emergency physicians, us consumer product safety commission, national electronic injury surveillance syste,thh helmets, Email this Article to a Friend! Receive Articles like this one direct to your email box!Subscribe for free today!