Cycling: Health Benefits and Risks

Cycling: Health Benefits and Risks

Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks?

BACKGROUND Although from a societal point of view a modal shift from car to bicycle may have beneficial health effects due to decreased air pollution emissions, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, and increased levels of physical activity, shifts in individual adverse health effects such as higher exposure to air pollution and risk of a traffic accident may prevail. OBJECTIVE We describe whet...

Electronic health record systems: risks and benefits.

This special issue of JAMIA presents several applications of electronic health record (EHR) systems for clinical decision making. The integration of genetic information into EHRs has been receiving a lot of attention in the past few years. Wilcox et al (see page e117) describe the implementation of a user interface in an EHR that resulted in timely dissemination of gene variant information to c...

Health risks and benefits of alcohol consumption.

Alcohol consumption has consequences for the health and well-being of those who drink and, by extension, the lives of those around them. The research reviewed here represents a wide spectrum of approaches to understanding the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption. These research findings can help shape the efforts of communities to reduce the negative consequences of alcohol consumption, as...

Health benefits of cycling: a systematic review.

The purpose of this study was to update the evidence on the health benefits of cycling. A systematic review of the literature resulted in 16 cycling-specific studies. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies showed a clear positive relationship between cycling and cardiorespiratory fitness in youths. Prospective observational studies demonstrated a strong inverse relationship between commuter c...