China: “I Know, I Know, But I Don’t Do It” – Motorcycle Helmet Knowledge and Behavior

We don’t always practice what we preach. We know that smoking is bad for health, yet, many people smoke. We should eat correctly and exercise, but many of us don’t. The same goes for helmets – while the majority of motorcyclists know about the protective effect of helmets, in places like small cities in South China, many less wear them.

In these smaller cities in China (Shantou, pop. 5 million and Chaozhou, pop. 2.5 million), a little less than one-third of motorcyclists wear helmets. Three researchers from the Injury Prevention Research Center at the Medical College of Shantou University, conducted an observational study of helmet use and in-depth interviews with about 1 000 motorcyclists. They observed about 80,000 motorcyclists riding on three types of roads (national and provincial highways and local streets), and questioned another group about their knowledge and attitudes towards helmet wearing. Helmet usage rates were lowest on the local streets and highest on the national highways.

Most of the motorcyclists (93%) believed that helmets were protective, but a much lower percentage knew that there was a law requiring helmet use or felt that they should be compelled to wear a helmet. Only 60% of the motorcyclists had ever heard advertising about helmet use and less than three-quarters knew how to wear the helmet correctly.

The authors suggest that because of low rate of overall helmet wearing and the lack of knowledge about wearing them correctly, there is a need to enforce mandatory use of motorcycle helmets and to enhance education about helmet use.

Li GL, Li LP, Cai, QE. Motorcycle helmet use in Southern China: An observational study. Traffic Inj Prevention 2008;9:125-128.

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