Korean J Sports Med.  2021 Sep;39(3):110-116. 10.5763/kjsm.2021.39.3.110.

Epidemiological Characteristics of Bicycle-related Injuries with the Emergence of the COVID-19

• Ko BS
• Cho SH
• Noh DY
• Kim JG

• KMID: 2519573
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5763/kjsm.2021.39.3.110

Abstract

Purpose
Following the outbreak and global spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an increasing number of people have turned to cycling. This study aims to investigate the epidemiology of bicycle-related injuries before and after the emergence of the COVID-19.
Methods
In this retrospective study, we collected medical records of those patients who visited the emergency room for orthopedic injuries related to bicycle accidents. The “COVID-19 period” consisted of the patients identified from April 1 to November 31 in the year 2020, while the “pre-COVID-19 period” consisted of those identified during the same months of the year 2019.
Results
A total of 519 patients were identified. The bicycle-related injuries increased by 5.1% during the COVID-19, in comparison to the pre-COVID-19 period. Among these, 76.3% were men. The highest incidence of the injuries was seen for 10– 19 years of age during the pre-COVID-19, and for 50– 59 years of age during the COVID-19 period. Overall, upper limb injuries were the commonest, consisting of 32.2% of all injuries. The shoulder injuries were the commonest in the pre-COVID-19, while the knee injuries were the commonest in the COVID-19 period. Assessing the severity of the injuries, contusion (81.8%) was the commonest. Of the injuries requiring hospital admissions, hip injuries had the highest incidence at 76.5%.
Conclusion
During the COVID-19, the total number of bicycle-related injuries did not increase significantly. In the bicycle-related injuries, the middle-age group had the highest proportion during the COVID-19 period. More efficient prevention strategies for middle-aged riders are necessary.

Keyword

Bicycle-related injuries; COVID-19; Traffic accidents; Epidemiology

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Age distribution of patients who has bicycle-related injury. COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019. Pre-COVID-19: April 1 to November 31, 2019; post- COVID-19: April 1 to November 31, 2020.

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  Fig. 2 Frequency of bicycle- related injury per month. COVID- 19: coronavirus disease 2019. Pre-COVID-19: April 1 to Novem-ber 31, 2019; post-COVID-19: April 1 to November 31, 2020.

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