Study to Improve Adolescent Bicycling Safety

Summary

This cluster randomized controlled trial will evaluate a community-based bicycle safety education program with and without an in-person parent training component. The investigators will recruit 180 early adolescent bicyclists (ages 9 to 12) and a parent/guardian from local neighborhood centers after school and summer programs, where the investigators have conducted preliminary studies. Randomization into the three study groups will occur at the site-level.

Adolescent bicycles in all study group sites will be equipped with Pedal Portal, an innovative bicycle-mounted GPS/video system developed by the research team to objectively observe bicycling risk exposure and behaviors while bicycling. System data will be coded to measure bicycling exposure (hours, miles traveled, routes) and the types and rates of safety-relevant events (near crashes, crashes), and safety-relevant behaviors (e.g., following traffic rules, scanning for traffic at intersections). This will be the first randomized trial to use GPS and video technology to evaluate the effectiveness of a youth bicycle safety intervention in changing behavior. The control group will not receive any bicycle safety education programming. Participants in the first intervention group (Bike Club) will receive a 12-hour bicycle safety education program. Participants in the second intervention group (Bike Club Plus) will receive an enhanced version of the 12-hour bicycle safety education program which will include a parent training session on bicycling safety best practices, child development as it relates to bicycling, strategies for practice at home, and feedback on their adolescent's bicycling performance. The investigators' main hypotheses are that adolescents who receive the bicycle safety intervention will have increased safety behaviors (e.g., helmet use, hazard recognition), reduced errors (e.g., riding against traffic, swerving/wobbling), and increased knowledge, perceptions, and self-efficacy compared to the control group; and adolescents whose parent receives the parent training will have even greater improvements in study outcomes than those whose parents do not receive the training. If successful, approaches from this study could be widely implemented to improve adolescent bicycling safety.

Conditions

• Bicycling
• Knowledge
• Adolescent
• Self Efficacy
• Education
• Attitudes
• Practice
• Safety
• Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Bike Club

Administration of a bicycle safety education program to children ages 9-12 based on Let's Go NC!. Let's Go NC! includes observational skill checklists for instructors to track participant progress throughout the program, on-bicycle skills practice, hazard anticipation and avoidance, and traffic law importance and consequences. Additionally, participants will go on a "capstone ride" to practice their skills across varying transportation and recreation infrastructure and settings. The program will be administered at various sites across Iowa City.

BEHAVIORAL

Bike Club Plus

Same as Bike Club, with the addition of a parent training component. Parents from these dyads will receive a training session on bicycling safety best practices, tips for practicing with their children at home, and feedback on how their child performed in the program (including areas in need of improvement).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

  collaborator NIH

• Cara J. Hamann

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Cara Hamann, PHD · University of Iowa College of Public Health; University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

9 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-05-27

Primary Completion

2026-01-31

Completion

2026-01-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations