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The following is a summary of “Association between e-scooter temporal usage patterns with injuries resulting in admission to a level one trauma center,” published in the November 2024 issue of Emergency Medicine by Rix et al. 

The widespread use of e-scooters in urban areas has become a frequent cause of injury.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to examine the relationship between the timing of e-scooter use (day of the week and time of day) and injury incidence using data from the U.S. city.  

They used data from the trauma registry at a level 1 trauma center and combined it with a publicly available dataset of all e-scooter trips. The frequency of injuries and trips were analyzed through ANOVA. Poisson regression models were applied to calculate incidence rate ratios related to injury incidence by day of the week and time of day.  

The results showed 194 e-scooter riders with injuries were admitted to the trauma center. Injuries were most common on Fridays (21%) and between 18:00 and 23:59 (38%), E-scooter use was highest on Saturdays (20%) and between 12:00 and 17:59 (44%). No significant association was found between the day of the week and injury occurrence. The riders in the early morning had a significantly higher IRR = 16.7, P < .001, 95% CI: 10.5, 26.6), followed by those in the afternoon (IRR = 2.0, P = .01, 95% CI: 1.2, 3.4) and evening (IRR = 3.7, P < .001, 95% CI: 2.3, 6.2) compared to those riding in the morning.  

Investigators concluded the risk of e-scooter injuries varied by the time of day, suggesting that riding patterns might influence injury risk. 

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675724004091