Lockdowns and cycling injuries: temporal analysis of rates in Quebec during the first year of the pandemic

Abstract

Cycling increased in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the impact on cycling injuries is not known. We examined the effect of lockdowns on cycling injury hospitalizations.

We identified hospitalizations for cycling injuries in Quebec, Canada, between April 2006 and March 2021. We used rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to compare hospitalization rates by type of cycling injury and anatomical site during two waves of the pandemic. We performed interrupted time series regression to assess the effect of lockdowns on monthly cycling injury hospitalization rates, according to age, sex and other characteristics.

There were 2020 hospitalizations for cycling injuries between March 2020 and March 2021, including 617 during the first lockdown and 67 during the second lockdown. Compared with the period before the pandemic, risk of cycling-related injuries during the first lockdown increased the most for fractures (RR = 1.44; 95% CI: 1.26–1.64) and head and neck injuries (RR = 1.59; 95% CI: 1.19–2.12). Cycling injury hospitalization rates increased significantly among adults, adolescents and individuals from socioeconomically advantaged neighbourhoods or those with low concentrations of racialized people every month of the first lockdown. The second lockdown was not associated with cycling injuries.

The first lockdown triggered a sharp increase in cycling injury hospitalizations, especially among adults, adolescents and individuals from socioeconomically advantaged and less racialized neighbourhoods.