Pediatric anthropometrics are inconsistent with current guidelines for assessing rider fit on all-terrain vehicles.
OBJECTIVE
This study sought to establish objective anthropometric measures of fit or misfit for young riders on adult and youth-sized all-terrain vehicles and use these metrics to test the unproved historical reasoning that age alone is a sufficient measure of rider-ATV fit.


METHODS
Male children (6-11 years, n=8; and 12-15 years, n=11) were selected by convenience sampling. Rider-ATV fit was quantified by five measures adapted from published recommendations: (1) standing-seat clearance, (2) hand size, (3) foot vs. foot-brake position, (4) elbow angle, and (5) handlebar-to-knee distance.


RESULTS
Youths aged 12-15 years fit the adult-sized ATV better than the ATV Safety Institute recommended age-appropriate youth model (63% of subjects fit all 5 measures on adult-sized ATV vs. 20% on youth-sized ATV). Youths aged 6-11 years fit poorly on ATVs of both sizes (0% fit all 5 parameters on the adult-sized ATV vs 12% on the youth-sized ATV).


CONCLUSIONS
The ATV Safety Institute recommends rider-ATV fit according to age and engine displacement, but no objective data linking age or anthropometrics with ATV engine or frame size has been previously published. Age alone is a poor predictor of rider-ATV fit; the five metrics used offer an improvement compared to current recommendations.
Bernard
Andrew C
AC
Trauma Program, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536-0293, USA. acbern00@uky.edu
Mullineaux
David R
DR
Auxier
James T
JT
Forman
Jennifer L
JL
Shapiro
Robert
R
Pienkowski
David
D
D000056:Accident Prevention; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000886:Anthropometry; D002648:Child; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015541:Off-Road Motor Vehicles; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results