Injuries related to exercise bikes (all ages)

Frequency: From January 2001 to December 2007, there have been 138 cases of exercise bike-related injury treated in Emergency Departments (ED) in Victoria , an average of 20 per year. As can be seen from Table 1, the frequency of exercise bike–related injury has fluctuated over the 7-year period with injuries peaking in 2007 (23%).

Table 1: Exercise bike–related injury by year

Age: The highest injury frequency occurred in age group 5-9 years (32%), followed by 0-4 year olds (29%) and 10-14 year olds (9%). There was a marked reduction in injuries from age 20 years onward (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Exercise bike–related injury ED presentations by age (n=138)

Gender: Males were slightly over-represented (54%).

Cause: Most exercise bike injuries occurred when the person was struck by, or collided with the exercise bike (33%). A further 21% of injury cases were related to cutting and piercing and 18% were falls. Further analysis of descriptive data indicated that the most common event involved young children putting their fingers or toes into the wheel spokes or chain of the exercise bike.

Nature of injury: The most common types of injuries were open wounds (46%), followed by fractures (12%) and superficial injury (12%).

Source: VEMD, Jan '01 – Dec ‘07 Figure 2: Exercise bike–related injury ED presentations by body region injured (n=138)

Body region: More than half of the injuries were to the lower extremity of which damage to the foot including toes accounted for most of the cases (30%). The upper extremity was the second most commonly injured body region (33%) of which damage to the hand accounted for 25% of cases, followed by the head, face and neck (6%) (Figure 2). Location: Eighty percent of the injuries occurred in the home. Discharge status: Of the 138 ED presentations, 86% were discharge to home and 14% were admitted to hospital.

Prevention: The mandatory Australian safety standard AS 4092-1993 requires securely fastened frames around all moving parts. Seats, seat pillar supports and handlebars need to be well constructed and secured after any adjustment. While these standards are enforced within the retail industry and breaches of these standards result in substantial penalties, difficulty arises with regulating the use of older style exercise bikes and the purchase of second-hand exercise bikes for personal use. Parents need to be conscious of the risks associated with exercise bikes and young children.

Further information: For further information regarding exercise bike-related injury, see Hazard editions 5, 9 and 30.
www.monash.edu.au/muarc/VISU/hazard/hazard.html

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission:
www.accc.gov.au