Pezcyclingnews: Toolbox: Preventing Cycling Injuries

As with all competitive sports, there is also a risk for injury in competitive bicycling. It is important to understand the pattern and epidemiology of injuries suffered by competitive bicyclists in order to implement appropriate injury prevention and treatment strategies. The patterns of injury in bicycling are unique since exposures include high speed, obstacles like cyclists, pedestrians and motor vehicles, and unpredictable road, environmental and weather conditions. Furthermore, bicyclists usually do not have any external protection beyond wearing a helmet. There is a risk of both acute traumatic injuries and overuse injuries. Injury patterns also differ between the type of bicycling, that is, road, cyclo-cross, off-road/mountain bike, and BMX, etc. The majority of studies examining the epidemiology of injuries in competitive bicycling are retrospective questionnaire and/or interview in design (Bohlmann 1981; Callaghan and Jarvis 1996; Clarsen, Krosshaug, and Bahr 2010; De Bernardo et al. 2012; Pfeiffer 1993; Pfeiffer 1994). That is, bicyclists are surveyed or interviewed as to what injuries they suffered from a preceding period of time. These types of studies are easier and less expensive to conduct but are susceptible to confounding factors such as incomplete and/or inaccurate details and recall and selection bias. Also, the incidence of injury and rates of injury cannot always be determined since accurate exposure data is not usually known. Finally, in professional and competitive bicycling, bicyclists may not accurately report injuries for strategic reasons. Nonetheless, these studies are still valuable for providing an idea of the epidemiology of competitive bicycling injuries. A...

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