Cycle helmets and young people: a review of the evidence

Devon County Council commissioned Plymouth University to undertake a brief review into the effectiveness of cycle helmets, particularly during cycle training.

The review makes extensive use of systematic reviews published by the Cochrane Collaboration on cycle helmet effectiveness and cycle helmet legislation effectiveness. A range of databases was searched for relevant literature including: Medline; Web of Knowledge; Scopus; Google Scholar; Transportation Research Information Services; and the Education Resource Information Centre.

The review concludes: “This literature review was conducted in the context of Bikeability. This is a programme where trainers take children of unknown ability and introduce them to bicycle use. This seems to be precisely the circumstances capable of generating the kind of incidents for which the British Standard specification implies that helmet will be effective.

Helmets may be a compromise which allows aerobic activity, but clearly they are designed to protect from a relatively low kinetic energy event such as a fall or a trip. There is little in the literature that contests the effectiveness of helmets in these circumstances. It seems prudent to insist on helmet wearing for these activities and there is little published research to contradict this view.”

A survey of the local authorities and providers who deliver National Standard cycle training in England revealed that the majority have a policy that requires children to wear helmets. About half of the providers also either recommend or require adults to wear helmets during training; this is particularly the case of the larger providers of training. British Cycling has a company-wide policy that all participants, on all their various types of cycling courses, are required to wear a cycle helmet.

Nearly all of the National Standard Instructors in England wear a helmet when delivering training, regardless of whether there is a policy in place.

Based on the evidence obtained, all participants in the Devon County Council National Standard cycle training programme will still be required to wear a cycle helmet.