WASHINGTON — Bicycling has plenty of health benefits, but bicyclists are suffering more injuries than ever before — and riders 45 and older are the most susceptible, a new study says.
The report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at nationwide statistics from 1998 to 2013, and found that injuries increased by 28 percent and the number of hospital admissions more than doubled.
The proportion of injuries suffered by those 45 and older went up from 23 percent to 42 percent; of hospital admissions, from 39 percent to 65 percent.
Dr. Benjamin N. Breyer, of the University of California San Francisco, and his team used data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, which presents a sample of about 100 emergency departments nationwide.
The authors of the study say these numbers reflect an increase in older adult cyclists in recent years, and that the overall increases could be caused by “an increase in street accidents and an increase in sport cycling associated with faster speeds.”
The report says trends in cycling-related injuries are difficult to read, because the majority of non-fatal cycling injuries are neither reported to the police nor included in the traffic reports used in the study.
Dr. Breyer’s group also found that the proportion of cyclists with head injuries increased from 10 percent to 16 percent. Thirty-five percent of injuries overall occurred in women.
To address these increasing numbers, Dr. Breyer and his colleagues say, accommodations and safety practices are key.
“As the population of cyclists in the United States shifts to an older demographic, further investments in infrastructure and promotion of safe riding practices are needed to protect bicyclists from injury.”
