You’ve invested in your brain – now protect it

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Occupational therapy students found only 20% of McMaster students wear helmets when riding their bikes, longboards, and skateboards to and from campus.


Remember when your mother told you to wear a helmet when riding your bike? She was on to something.

Occupational therapy students under the supervision of Carol DeMatteo have completed a study on McMaster students’ use of helmets. They found that only about 20 per cent of student riders wear helmets when riding their bikes, longboards and skateboards to and from campus.

As part of their project, Amanda Smith, Lauren Carter, Nadia Federici and Lisa Clarke are focusing on ways to improve brain injury awareness and increase helmet use around the McMaster community.

Their research showed that many young adults do not wear helmets because they are uncomfortable, inconvenient and not aesthetically pleasing.

In Ontario, the law requires everyone under the age of 18 to wear a helmet. Helmets protect people from head injuries that can be fatal. In fact, statistics show head injuries are the cause of 75 per cent of bicycle related deaths.

“Wearing a helmet doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the impact of an accident can be so severe on your life,” says Carter. “In occupational therapy, we have been exposed to the impact a brain injury can have on someone’s life. We’ve seen people’s lives that have been completely turned upside down as they become dependent on others for many basic care activities. It has a huge impact physically, mentally and emotionally for the individual and their family.”

Many McMaster students use a bike as a primary method of getting around, but even with a short-distance commute, there is no decrease in the likelihood of students getting into an accident.

“A common misconception is that kids are more fragile and therefore more likely to receive a head injury, but in reality it can happen to anyone,” says Clarke. According to the Hamilton Helmet initiative, 84 per cent of bicycle deaths are persons 20 years and older.

Check out a bike (and a helmet) from Mills Bike Library or borrow a new SoBi Bike

The group of students point to a lack of education from when students were young until now. Since it is not illegal for most university-aged students to refrain from wearing a helmet, people think it is not as important.

“People are coming to McMaster to get educated and they’re literally investing money into their brain. Yet students are not wearing a helmet to protect what is actually in their heads,” says Federici.

The occupational therapy students hope their research project will provide effective strategies that will encourage McMaster students to wear a helmet and protect themselves.

The group will have an information booth set up in the Student Centre Wednesday April 8 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., to provide information on properly fitted helmets as well as demonstrations of brain injuries through a simulated Jell-O brain. Students also have the opportunity to win a free helmet.

For more information on their research project, you can visit their Facebook page, Love Your MAC Brain.

Inside a brain injury