Citation

Cummings P, Rivara FP, Thompson DC, Thompson RS. Accid. Anal. Prev. 2006; 38(4): 636-643.

Affiliation

Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.aap.2005.12.007

PMID

16417901

Abstract

A number of published case-control studies have reported that bicycle helmets are associated with a reduced risk of head injury and brain injury among bicyclists who crashed. A paper in this journal offered several criticisms of these studies and of a systematic review of these studies. Many of those criticisms stem from misconceptions about the studies that have been done and about case-control studies in general. In this manuscript we review case-control study design, particularly as it applies to bicycle helmet studies, and review some aspects of the analysis of case-control data.