Doctors urge more widespread use of helmets in sport

NEW YORK, Aug 18 (Reuters) One in five serious brain injuries to children and teens occur during sports or recreational activities, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS).

The statistics underscore the importance of ensuring that everyone -- children and adults -- wears properly fitting,appropriate protective head gear while engaging in activities that carry the risk of head injury, such as bicycling, baseball, football and horseback riding, Dr Arthur Day, director of the Cerebrovascular Center and the Neurological Sports Injury Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, told Reuters Health.

''It's just a common sense sort of situation. What we have to do is change the public perception that it's not cool to wear a helmet,'' Day, who also serves as the AANS' vice president, said in an interview. ''Seatbelts used to be not very cool to use, but now everybody uses them.'' US emergency rooms treated 309,322 sports-related head injuries in 2005, according to figures from the Consumer Product Safety Commission cited by the AANS.

Cycling was the most common cause of these injuries, accounting for about 64,000, followed by football (31,883), powered recreational vehicles such as ATVs and dune buggies (26,093), basketball (25,241), and baseball and softball (22,919).

Among children aged 14 and younger, the top 10 causes of head injuries were cycling, football, baseball and softball, basketball, water sports, skateboards and scooters, powered recreational vehicles, winter sports, soccer and trampolines, in that order.

Just over half of children aged 5 to 14 don't wear helmets while riding their bikes, according to Safe Kids USA, while as many as 85 per cent of head injuries related to bicycling could have been prevented if the rider was wearing a properly-fitting approved helmet.

''Accidents occur out of the blue, so having that just as part of your routine equipment makes sense,'' Day said.

REUTERS AB BS0841