title: [Incidence of bicycle-related accidents and subsequent injury in community-dwelling older adults: understanding potential accidents].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated 1) the incidence of bicycle-related accidents and subsequent injuries and 2) the number of injuries (accidents) reported to the police (i.e., examining the number of potential accidents) among community-dwelling Japanese older adults, after examining the percentage of those who were regular cyclists.
  
  
  METHODS
  Based on local resident registration, we mailed questionnaires to 7083 community-dwelling older adults. The questionnaire included questions about the incidence of bicycle-related accidents and subsequent injury within a year, the degree of injury and presence or absence of reporting that injury (bicycle-related accident) to the police. For the bicycle-related accident, we asked regarding both riding and pedestrian accidents (i.e., accidents caused by a bicycle when walking).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Excluding the blank responses (n=3539, 50.0%), the targets for analysis were 3098 older adults in riding accidents and 2861 older adults in pedestrian accidents. The results showed that 63.0% of older adults (n=1953) routinely rode a bicycle. Among them, 9.4% (n=184) experienced riding accidents, and 3.4% (n=98) experienced pedestrian accidents caused by a bicycle. For the riding accidents, 76.1% (n=140) had some injuries, and for the pedestrian accidents, 55.1% (n=54) had some injuries. Furthermore, in 70.2% (n=59) and 76.9% (n=20) of riding and pedestrian accidents, respectively, those who went to the hospital for treatment of their injury (i.e., injury requiring treatment) did not report the accident to the police.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study revealed that there are many potential bicycle-related accidents in older adults. This suggests that there may be a large gap in the national survey data between reported bicycle-related accidents and the actual number of incidents in older adults.
authors.affiliation: Waseda University.
authors.forename: Ryota
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Taro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukaya
authors.forename: Hideyo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Hunkyung
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hirohiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Shuichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Obuchi
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D001642:Bicycling; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057187:Independent Living; D008297:Male; D014041:Tokyo / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*