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The Injuries and Helmet Use in Bike Share Programs: A Systematic Review

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Abstract

To investigate the injury effects of bike share programs and the helmet usage status in bike share programs. We conducted a systematic review of peer reviewed scientific literature. Searches were conducted in three databases (Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science) on March 1 2020 to identify all articles on the injury incidence related to bike share programs and the helmet usage status in bike share programs. Titles, abstracts, and full-text articles were screened to identify all articles relevant to the themes by two authors independently, and discrepancies were resolved after discussion with the third author. Standardised data extraction and quality assessment (The Newcastle–Ottawa Scale) were implemented. A sum of 491 records after removing duplicates was identified, 181 fulltext articles were screened, and 13 studies were included in the review. The primary outcome are injuries of bike share users and unhelmeted rate among bike share users as well as the unhelmeted rate among personal bike users. Two studies evaluated the injuries related to bike share users, but have inconclusive results. A total of 11 studies reported the unhelmeted rates in bike share programs ranging from 36.0 to 88.9%. There is a significant change in bike injuries with the implementation of bike share programs. Moreover, the unhelmeted rate of bike share users was generally higher than that of personal bike users, which may result from helmets’ accessibility and users’ safety perception.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Zhizhong Gong for his suggestions about the study. Thanks for SC’s friend Ms. Sarah Higbee-Tindell in writing assistance of grammar modification.

Funding

The study was supported by Guodong Liu’s China Postdoctoral Science Foundations (2014M562594;2015T81090; https://jj.chinapostdoctor.org.cn/V1/Program3/Default.aspx), Guodong Liu’s Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Chongqing (Xm2015034, GL; https://zhuanji.cqhrss.gov.cn/u/zhuanji/news_63797.shtml). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Southwest School of Medicine and First Affiliated Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, People’s Republic of China

    Siyu Chen, Huijie Cui, Mingshuang Tang, Yutong Wang, Bing Song, Zhuozhi Shen & Dongqing Gu

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, People’s Republic of China

    Min Zhang & Ye Bai

  3. State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burn and Combined Injuries, Fourth Department, Daping Hospital, Institute for Traffic Medicine, Research Institute of Surgery, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400042, People’s Republic of China

    Zhiyong Yin

  4. State Key Laboratory of Trauma, Burn and Combined Injuries, Eighth Department, Daping Hospital, Research Institute of Surgery, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400042, People’s Republic of China

    Siyu Chen & Guodong Liu

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  1. Siyu Chen
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  2. Huijie Cui
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Contributions

SC was responsible for conceptualisation and project management, search design and execution. GL supervised the study. SC, HC, and MT were responsible for screening, data extraction, quality assessment and interpretation. SC prepared the first draft. GL, YW, MZ, YB, BS, ZZ, DG, and ZY were responsible for revisions and approval to submit manuscript.

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Correspondence to Guodong Liu.

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Chen, S., Cui, H., Tang, M. et al. The Injuries and Helmet Use in Bike Share Programs: A Systematic Review. J Community Health 46, 203–210 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-020-00836-6

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