0000000000420051

AUTHOR

Anna Morandi

Under-reporting bicycle accidents to police in the COST TU1101 international survey: Cross-country comparisons and associated factors

Police crash reports are often the main source for official data in many countries. However, with the exception of fatal crashes, crashes are often underreported in a biased manner. Consequently, the countermeasures adopted according to them may be inefficient. In the case of bicycle crashes, this bias is most acute and it probably varies across countries, with some of them being more prone to reporting accidents to police than others. Assessing if this bias occurs and the size of it can be of great importance for evaluating the risks associated with bicycling.This study utilized data collected in the COST TU1101 action "Towards safer bicycling through optimization of bicycle helmets and us…

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Psychosocial factors associated with helmet use by adult cyclists

Abstract: This study examines beliefs about helmet use in adult cyclists from 17 countries participating in the COST Action TU1101 Project (Helmet Optimization in Europe – HOPE). A total of 5797 respondents were included in the analysis after applying eligibility criteria and data cleaning. Cyclists' beliefs were assessed by 25 items using a 7-point Likert scale. These items were factor analyzed resulting in a four-factor solution (Factor 1: Perceived Benefits and Risk Reduction, Factor 2: Perceived Disadvantages and Barriers to Helmet Use, Factor 3: Perception of Group Norms, and Factor 4: Situation-Dependence of Helmet Use). Results show that both beliefs and helmet wearing behavior diffe…

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Abiding by the law when it does not exist: The case of the helmet bicycle law

To improve the safety of bicycle users, some countries have enacted, or considered enacting, mandatory helmet legislation. Of course, the enactment of such legislation in a country assumes that its citizens will be well-informed of it, and consequently, will use the helmet more frequently than before. However, in the survey described in this paper we found that many people are not aware of the legislation in force in their own country, or, even if they know, they may not necessarily behave as dictated by the law. Thus, the effects of mandatory helmet legislation may be somewhat different than desired or expected. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to ascertain the role of cyclists' knowle…

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Inter- and Intraobserver Variation in the Assessment of Preoperative Colostograms in Male Anorectal Malformations: An ARM-Net Consortium Survey

Aim:Male patients with anorectal malformations (ARM) are classified according to presence and level of the recto-urinary fistula. This is traditionally established by a preoperative high-pressure distal colostogram that may be variably interpreted by different surgeons. The aim of this study was to evaluate the inter- and intraobserver variation in the assessment by pediatric surgeons of preoperative colostograms with respect to the level of the recto-urinary fistula. Materials and Methods:Sixteen pediatric surgeons from 14 European centers belonging to the ARM-Net Consortium twice scored 130 images of distal colostograms taken in sagittal projection at a median age of 66 days of life (rang…

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