Head injuries from riding electric scooters without a helmet are on the rise, a new study reports.
Between 2008 and 2017, nearly 32,000 injuries were estimated nationwide, according to a review of records in the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance system. Accidents tripled from about 2,300 in 2008 to nearly 7,000 in 2017.
Most of those injured were adult men, but a third of the injuries happened to kids between 6 and 12 years of age, researchers said.
The most common injuries were closed head injuries, such as concussions, and bleeding or bruising of the brain, the researchers found. Facial cuts and abrasions were also common.
In accident records that made note of helmet use, 66% of those injured weren't wearing one. Use of helmets increased with age from 19% among toddlers to 67% among senior riders. Helmet laws vary from state to state.
Researchers emphasized that electric scooters aren't toys and can reach speeds of up to 30 mph.
"The United States should standardize electric scooter laws and license requirements should be considered to decrease the risky behaviors associated with motorized scooter use," said study lead author Dr. Amishav Bresler. He's a resident in the department of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark.
"In 2000, Italy implemented a law mandating helmet use for all types of recreational scooter drivers -- legislation that reduced head trauma in scooter riders from about 27 out of 10,000 people before the law passed to about 9 out of 10,000 people afterward," Bresler said in a Rutgers news release.
The report was
ed online recently in the American Journal of Otolaryngology.
Victoza (liraglutide) injection is now approved to treat type 2 diabetes in children 10 years and older, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced.
ReplyDeleteApproved to treat type 2 diabetes in adults in 2010, Victoza is the first noninsulin drug to be approved to treat type 2 diabetes in children since metformin in 2000. Victoza's labeling states that the injection is not a substitute for insulin and is not indicated for patients with type 1 diabetes or those with diabetic ketoacidosis. Dosage of Victoza in children should start at 0.6 mg daily for at least one week. The manufacturer's prescribing information indicates that if additional glycemic control is required, the dose should be increased to 1.2 mg daily, and then to 1.8 mg daily after at least one week of treatment with the 1.2-mg daily dose if additional control is still required.
Approval of Victoza in children aged 10 years and older was based on several placebo-controlled trials in adults and one placebo-controlled trial in children. In the trial of 134 children aged 10 years and older, at 26-week follow-up, HbA1c levels reduced to less than 7 percent for approximately 64 percent of children treated with Victoza compared with 37 percent of children treated with placebo. Researchers found similar results when patients were also taking insulin simultaneously.
Although Victoza has been indicated to reduce the risk for major adverse cardiovascular events in adults with type 2 diabetes, the FDA notes that the drug's effect on major adverse cardiovascular events in children has not been studied, and it is therefore not indicated to reduce the risk for these events in children. Children aged 10 years and older who are taking Victoza have an increased risk for hypoglycemia even without additional therapies for diabetes. Due to an increased risk for thyroid C-cell tumors, Victoza is contraindicated in patients who have had medullary thyroid carcinoma, those with family members who have had medullary thyroid carcinoma, and patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2.
Approval of Victoza was granted to Novo Nordisk.