"Use Your Head -- Use a Helmet" Program Aims to Protect Children from Head Injury
Cincinnati Children's and ChoiceCare/Humana to Sell Regular and Multi-Sport Helmets for Fifth Year
CINCINNATI -- Children's Hospital Medical Center and ChoiceCare/Humana are collaborating again this year to encourage children to wear helmets when bicycling, skating or skate-boarding.
The "Use Your Head -- Use a Helmet" program includes the sale of bicycle helmets for $10 and multi-sport helmets for $15, a media campaign and a grass roots initiative to educate children, parents and the public about the importance of bicycle safety and wearing protective head gear. There is also an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program.
Cincinnati Children's has sold more than 60,000 helmets since the program began. The goal of the program is to increase helmet usage and, in the long term, decrease the number of children requiring a doctor's care or emergency treatment because of bicycle-related head injuries.
"The percentage of children who wear a helmet has risen from 8 to 11 percent since the program began," says Michael T. Vossmeyer, MD, medical director, ChoiceCare/Humana. "Our goal is to have all children wearing helmets when bicycling, skating or skate-boarding."
"It's our intent to convince children and their parents that wearing helmets and safe bike riding are necessary to prevent severe injuries and even death," adds Victor F. Garcia, M.D., director of Cincinnati Children's Trauma Services. "We need to make riding or skating without a helmet as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving."
In 1998, 98 children were admitted to Cincinnati Children's for treatment of bicycle-related injuries. One died. Of the 98, 39 percent suffered head injuries, and only 8 percent wore helmets at the time of injury. About 900 additional children were treated in and released from Cincinnati Children's emergency department. Injured children ranged in age from 2 to 15 years, and about 75 percent were boys.
Bicycles are associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except cars. Nationally, in 1996, 193 children between the ages of 5 and 14 were killed in traffic-related bicycle crashes. Each year, about 153,000 children are treated in hospital emergency departments for bicycle-related head injuries. Although helmets reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent, and the risk of brain injury by as much as 88 percent, only about 18 percent of all cyclists wear helmets. If all cyclists wore helmets, one life would be saved every day, and one head injury would be prevented every four minutes.
The six-week media campaign to promote helmet usage consists of television spots with the "Use Your Head -- Use a Helmet" theme. The four-month, grassroots initiative includes helmet sales and appearances at the 10 scheduled Q102/Kroger "Back the Blue" festivals. These festivals will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at various Kroger locations on alternating Saturdays between May 15 and Sept. 18.
As of March 10, 1999, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a safety standard, comparable to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and Snell Standards each helmet manufacturer must meet to sell helmets in the United States.
The CPSC standard will not expand to other helmet standards such as for skating, roller hockey and downhill bicycle racing. ASTM and Snell will continue to product standards for those related activities. When purchasing a multi-sport helmet, look on the inside of the helmet for a sticker bearing the ASTM or Snell certification.
Cincinnati Children's is selling helmets from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays throughout the summer in the Hospital Tower lobby, which can be entered from the visitor's parking garage off Burnet Avenue.
Helmets are also being sold at varying hours throughout the summer at Cincinnati Children's outpatient services locations in Mason, Harrison, Fairfield, Eastgate, and Anderson, and at the Hopple Street Neighborhood Health Center.
Cash, check or money orders will be accepted. Community and school groups, Kiwanis, police, fire departments and emergency medical squads also will sell helmets at various community and neighborhood events through the summer. For further information and a list of locations, call Cincinnati Children's helmet line, 513-636-5851.
ChoiceCare/Humana is the largest managed care organization in the Greater Cincinnati area, serving more than 340,000 health plan members through HMO, PPO, Medicare Risk, point-of-service and administrative services (ASO) products. ChoiceCare was the first Cincinnati health plan to receive three-year, full accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer,
jfeuer@chmcc.org or Jose Marques, ChoiceCare/Humana, 513- 357-6515
