Evaluation bicycle helmet campaign 'Wanna look cool, wear a helmet!' in the Province of Zeeland in the Netherlands : Effects on helmet use and influential factors. In the Netherlands children learn to cycle at an early age. The learning process is one of trial and error and as a result, children often fall from their bicycles. The majority of these falls are single-bicycle crashes; for example, children falling off their bicycle after hitting a bollard or a kerb. The risk of head injury due to a bicycle crash is higher for young children than for adults. The severity of the head injury may be limited by wearing a bicycle helmet. However, the bicycle helmet is not popular in the Netherlands and hence there is no support for making it compulsory. There seems to be support for promoting helmet use, especially for groups that are associated with a higher risk, such as children. To stimulate voluntary use of bicycle helmets and to prevent serious head injury among young children cycling in the Province of Zeeland, the Province of Zeeland, together with the Regional Traffic Safety Body Zeeland (ROVZ) developed a bicycle helmet campaign ‘Coole kop, helm op!' (Wanna look cool, wear a helmet!). From 2010 to 2015, free bicycle helmets were provided to Zeeland’s primary school pupils as part of the campaign. At the request of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, SWOV and the Dutch Consumer Safety Institute (VeiligheidNL) evaluated the effect of the bicycle helmet campaign in Zeeland. The research done by VeiligheidNL covered the (cost) effectiveness in reducing head injury. SWOV examined whether the campaign influenced the voluntary bicycle helmet use by children. This report presents the results. The complete evaluation is summarized in the publication Fietshelmcampagne ‘Coole kop, helm op!’ in Zeeland : Evaluatie van de effecten (Boele et al., 2016, http://www.swov.nl/rapport/coole-kop-helm-op.pdf).
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