mark99

Right, as someone who can actually access the .pdf file of the full article, I think I should comment because there is a lot of nonsense in this discussion. The study is conducted by doctors at the University of British Colombia, and the statistics are solely from the records of people being admitted to their spinal trauma unit. They say that they are the primary referral centre for spinal injuries in the British Colombia area, so this isn't an international study. They give their injury rates of MTB associated injuries as a percentage of the total number of spinal cord injuries they saw over the 13 year study period, which comes in at 3.7%. They also express it as a percentage relative to the total number of British Colombia residents. The reason they can't give figures for total amount of people riding versus people who sustain injuries is because it is impossible to know how many people went for a ride in a 13 year period. Think about it, do you register on some database every time you take your bike down the woods? It is impossible for them to know this. As for people asking for absoloute statements like 'Does a neck brace help?', this is not how research works. They present data, interpret it to the best of their knowledge and it is then published so it can be up for discussion by other experts in the area. Don't go thinking this has been published for a bunch of kids on a bike forum, this is supposed to be reference material for doctors working on similar cases. That is all.