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John Kerry

Adult bike injuries on the rise, especially for guys over 45

Kim Painter
Special to USA TODAY
In this March 18, 2015 file picture, U.S.  Secretary of State John Kerry rides his bicycle along the shore of Lake Geneva. Kerry was injured in May, while riding  in France.

More U.S. adults are getting hurt on bikes – probably because more of them, especially middle-aged and older men, are riding bikes, a new study shows.

The study, published in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests some recent high-profile bike accidents involving famous men – Secretary of State John Kerry, 71 (injured in France) and rock star Bono, 55 (not an American but injured riding in New York) – are part of a bigger trend.

Overall injuries and hospitalizations have increased since the late 1990s, but the biggest spike is an increase in the proportion of injured riders over age 45, said urologist Benjamin Breyer, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. Breyer said he and his colleagues became curious about cycling injuries after seeing many men coming in for surgery for such injuries as urethral damage after bike accidents.

They looked at data routinely collected by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission from about 100 emergency rooms nationwide. Comparing 1998 and 1999 to 2012 and 2013, the last year of data available, they found:

• Bike injuries increased from 96 to 123 per 100,000 adults, a 28% increase. Most often injured: arms and legs. Increasingly injured: heads.

• Hospitalizations after bike injury increased from 5.1 to 11.2 per 100,000 U.S. adults, a 120% rise.

• The share of injuries occurring in people over age 45 increased from 23% to 42% and the share of hospitalizations involving the older group increased from 39% to 65%.

A well-documented increase in adult bike riding, for sport, fun and commuting, likely explains many of the findings, Breyer said. The biggest increases in bike riding are among middle-aged men, he said. That older people are more prone to serious injury may explain the even bigger jump in hospitalizations, he said. He and his colleagues also cite reported increases in high-speed sport biking as a contributing factor.

Despite the increase in injury, Breyer remains a proponent of biking.

"The last thing I want people to take away from this is that bike riding is unsafe or bad. It's a great way to stay healthy and it's a great way to get to work," Breyer said.

There's no reason to think cycling is getting more dangerous on a per mile or per trip basis, John Pucher, a professor emeritus of urban planning at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, N.J., said. Pucher cites data from the U.S. Department of Transportation showing the number of bike trips in the U.S. increased from 3.3 million in 2001 to 4 million in 2009. Some communities embraced that rise in popularity by building more bike lanes and off-street paths and trails, he said.

"There are more people biking, so you would expect to see more injuries," said Pucher, 64, who lives and bikes in Raleigh, N.C.

High-speed sport bikers – often "middle-aged men….riding very fast on light-weight racing bikes," alongside car traffic -- do put themselves at increased risk, he said. More education of bikers and drivers is crucial, Pucher said.

Kevin Loughery, communications manager for USA Cycling, which represents competitive riders, said in an email that "while there are tremendous health benefits associated with cycling, there is unfortunately an increase in injury that comes with the sport's growth." He said the group is working "to educate cyclists to be aware of the risks, always wear a helmet and to ride safely."

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