{"id":182537,"date":"2017-06-09T14:29:53","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T14:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/medical-costs-of-bike-crashes-on-the-rise\/"},"modified":"2017-06-09T14:29:53","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T14:29:53","slug":"medical-costs-of-bike-crashes-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/medical-costs-of-bike-crashes-on-the-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical costs of bike crashes on the rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span id=\"article-text\"><br \/>\n<span id=\"midArticle_start\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_0\" \/><span class=\"article-prime\"><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocatio\/spann\">(Reuters Health) &#8211; Over the last two decades, the number of people injured in bicycle accidents in the U.S. has been rising and the cost of each crash has also gone up, according to a recent study.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><span id=\"midArticle_1\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The increases in accidents and medical costs are partly the result of increased ridership overall, the researchers write in the journal Injury Prevention, but the higher cost per accident is mainly driven by larger numbers of riders over age 45 and more street and highway crashes that may involve cars. <\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_2\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>\u201cWe advocate for cycling, as the proven health benefits certainly outweigh the potential health risks,\u201d said senior author Dr. Benjamin Breyer of the University of California, San Francisco.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_3\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>\u201cOur hope is that by quantifying these costs it will help to spur discussion and policy surrounding infrastructure for safe cycling,\u201d Breyer told Reuters Health by email.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_4\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Past research has shown that the number of bicycle-related accidents leading to hospital admission has risen dramatically, the researchers write. <\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_5\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>To determine how medical and quality of life costs related to bike crashes are evolving, the study team used data collected between 1997 and 2013 on adult bicycle injuries. <\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_6\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The data on non-fatal crashes came from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System while the fatal crash data was from the National Vital Statistics System.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_7\" \/><\/p>\n<p>                <span class=\"article-divide first-article-divide\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The research team also used cost estimates from the Consumer Product Safety Commission\u2019s Injury Cost Model to determine costs of work missed and quality of life lost due to crashes.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_8\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>They found that 3.8 million non-fatal adult bicycle injuries and just under 10,000 deaths were reported between 1997 and 2013. <\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_9\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The total cost of bicycle injuries over the study period was $ 209 billion for nonfatal injuries and $28 billion for bike-related deaths. <\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_10\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The number of non-fatal biking injuries increased by about 6,500 each year and the total costs rose by an average of $789 million annually. But the injury costs per mile traveled by bike fell from $2.85 in 2001 to $2.35 in 2009.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_11\" \/><\/p>\n<p>                <span class=\"article-divide second-article-divide\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Overall, the costs of nonfatal biking injuries rose by nearly 140 percent, from $9.3 billion in 1997 to $22.4 billion in 2013. <\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_12\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Over the study period, the share of costs attributed to riders over age 45 rose steadily by about 1.6 percent each year. Bicycle-related deaths also increased for people over 45 and decreased for those under 45.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_13\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>In addition, crashes occurring on streets or highways played an increasing role, with their share of the total costs rising by 0.8 percent each year. <\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_14\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>\u201cEncouraging people to use bicycles must occur along with building safer cycling infrastructure such as cycle tracks and better street lighting,\u201d said Morteza Asgarzadeh, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_15\" \/><\/p>\n<p>                <span class=\"article-divide third-article-divide\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>\u201cBicyclists, especially the older sub-populations, should become well-informed about the risks they take by using bicycles,\u201d Asgarzadeh told Reuters Health by email.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_16\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Although building biking infrastructure is expensive, it could ultimately help bring down costs due to crashes, Breyer noted.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_17\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>\u201cIn fact, we could build cycling infrastructure in one-sixth of the entire U.S. for the same cost of all these injuries in 10 years,\u201d Breyer said.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_18\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Asgarzadeh advised cyclists to be vigilant and drivers to watch out for bikes and give them room on the road.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_19\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>\u201cWhile bicycling has many health benefits, injuries can be costly and lengthy, especially for people over 40. Prevention is still the best and least expensive way to tackle the issue,\u201d Asgarzadeh said.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_20\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Breyer added that all cyclists should wear helmets. \u201cThe health benefits of cycling certainly outweigh the potential drawbacks. Many, many people cycle every day injury free,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_21\" \/><\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>SOURCE: bit.ly\/2qXAqCc<\/a> Injury Prevention, online June 1, 2017.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"midArticle_22\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Reuters Health) &#8211; Over the last two decades, the number of people injured in bicycle accidents in the U.S. has been rising and the cost of each crash has also gone up, according to a recent study. The increases in accidents and medical costs are partly the result of increased ridership overall, the researchers write <a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/medical-costs-of-bike-crashes-on-the-rise\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}