Funded Projects

Heads-Up: Helmet Safety for Adolescents

Project Year

2026

City & State

Charleston, South Carolina

Program Name

Resident

Topic

Health Education & Prevention

Program Description

Bicycle riding is a common form of exercise and play; however, it comes with its risks. It's within the top 10 mechanisms of injury that children are treated for in the ED (3), and the leading cause for ED visits for TBIs in the United States (4).  At MUSC  Children' s Hospital ED, we treated 117 children for bicycle accidents over the past 6 years. Of children treated for bicycle accident-related injuries, only 12% were wearing helmets. Of those who suffered moderate and severe head injuries, a mere 5% were wearing a helmet. This highlights the importance of increasing helmet use in pediatric patients to prevent unnecessary head injuries in Charleston County.     The primary setting would be Charleston County and this project would directly impact approximately 400 middle school students encountered through local middle schools and MUSC pediatric resident clinic. Children who participate in these activities without proper helmet use are at an increased risk of TBIs. It is estimated roughly 10,300 children living in Charleston County participate in bicycle riding. (4, 5) Our project goal is to better understand barriers and personal beliefs that impact whether or not early adolescents wear helmets when riding a bicycle and to partner with local groups who are already working in injury prevention to improve adolescent helmet access and utilization through helmet donations and educational interventions. We plan to interview  groups of middle-school students to understand feelings behind wearing a helmet, as well as barriers and personal beliefs that impact use. In coordination with our partners, we will host in-school and in-community presentations focusing on helmet education. Presentations will include proper helmet fitting, facts on head injuries, and common Q/As. We'll give away bicycle helmets for all participants as well as magnets featuring a QR code linked to safety facts. Education participation will be incentivized through a yearly raffle for a $250 gift-card for the purchase of a bicycle and helmet. Our community partners will include a local middle school, Low Country Helmets for Kids and MUSC’s pediatric trauma injury preventionist. Camp Middle School is a public school in Charleston County that has a large community of bike and scooter commuters, multiple of whom do not wear helmets. Lowcountry Helmets for Kids is a local non-profit providing free helmets to children and has agreed to be a longstanding partner.  We would plan to use grant funding to help purchase educational materials, bicycle helmets and incentives. To keep our project sustainable for years to come, we plan to keep working with our current community partners. Mary Beth Vassay, and the Lowcountry helmets for kids host events that occur on a regular basis that already emphasize helmet use including their national injury prevention day and safety town days for kids. Future community partners include community programs that share our goal of safe-outdoor play, including our county-park system and library system. We would also like to expand to include more schools in Charleston county, a local bicycle shop, and local cycling groups.  

Project Goal

Our project goals is to better understand barriers and personal beliefs that impact whether or not early adolescents wear helmets when riding a bicycle in Charleston County(1) and to partner with local groups who are already working in injury prevention to improve adolescent helmet access (2) and utilization (3)  through helmet donations and educational interventions serving as a primary prevention intervention.  

Project Objective 1

1 Identify the top three barriers to consistent helmet use among middle school students in Charleston County through a short survey. We will survey middle school students to identify what barriers and reservations they have to wearing a helmet when riding a bike or scooter.    

Project Objective 2

Adolescents will better understand the importance of helmets and proper use for safety and prevention of serious head and brain injuries.   Will provide education intervention with pre- and post- quiz paired with education presentation on proper helmet use to assess understanding.  

Project Objective 3

Adolescents will have access to an age-appropriate, properly fitted helmet for use when riding bicycle. We will provide free bicycle helmets paired with educational intervention to decrease  

AAP District

District IV

Institutional Name

MUSC

Contact 1

Jamie Barnett, MD

Contact 2

Jesper Jiang, MD

Contact 3

Haley Healy