Programs intended to encourage kids to wear a helmet when they ride their bikes work well, a new report shows.

After reviewing studies conducted with more than 60,000 children, researchers found that kids were four times more likely to wear a helmet if they participated in a community-based program that gave them free helmets, compared to kids who didn’t attend the programs.

However, if kids attended programs set in schools, or received a subsidy for a helmet, rather than a free helmet, they were only twice as likely to wear helmets as kids who didn’t attend either program.

“Helmet promotion programs that distribute free bicycle helmets are likely to be more successful at increasing helmet wearing than those which do not,” study co-author Dr. Simon Royal of the University of Nottingham Medical School in the UK told Reuters Health.

Previous research has shown that wearing a helmet can prevent up to 88% of serious head or brain injuries sustained in an accident involving a bicycle rider.

For the Cochrane Library report, Royal and his colleagues reviewed research collected about 22 campaigns that tried different tactics to promote helmet use among young bike riders.

Overall, the research showed that kids who participated in any helmet promotion program were more likely than others to wear a helmet.

Royal explained that it’s not clear from the research why community-based programs - often organized by health departments, hospitals, and fire departments or police - appear to be so much more successful than programs based in schools. “We can only speculate,” he said.

Royal noted that it’s unclear how much all of these programs cost, and whether they are also feasible for low-income communities.

The researchers say that further studies are needed to investigate if encouraging helmet use discourages kids from riding their bikes, which could have a significant impact on public health.

SOURCE: The Cochrane Library, April 2005.