To the Editor: Debate continues regarding the health benefits and consequences of helmet use in pedal cyclists.1 Australia is one of few countries in the world with mandatory helmet laws for both pedal cyclists and motorcyclists. To place the protective effect of helmets in pedal cyclists into perspective, we report on the relationship between helmet use and head injury severity in a retrospective cohort of both pedal cyclists and motorcyclists.
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We acknowledge the work of Mary Lam from the University of Sydney and Kendall Bein from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital for cost and data analysis. We also thank the trauma data managers and trauma coordinators from the major trauma centres who submitted data for the original study.
Kate Curtis was supported by a Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney Postdoctoral Fellowship. Funding support was provided by the NSW Institute of Injury and Trauma Management and St George Honda Trauma and Critical Care Research Program. Rebecca Ivers was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Career Development Fellowship. The study sponsors had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, or the writing of the manuscript.