Electric Scooter and Electric Bicycle Injuries in Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Review of Epidemiology, Injury Patterns, Clinical Outcomes, and Prevention

Electric scooters (e-scooters) and electric bicycles (e-bikes) are established urban micromobility modes, and children and adolescents form a growing share of riders. This narrative review synthesises peer-reviewed evidence on e-scooter and e-bike injuries in patients aged 18 years or younger, covering epidemiology, mechanisms, injury patterns, clinical outcomes, comparisons with conventional devices, and prevention. Each source was classified as dedicated paediatric evidence, mixed-age evidence with extractable paediatric results, adult or mixed-age evidence used only for context, or an adult-dominated systematic review, so that the basis of every claim is explicit. The reported burden has risen across national surveillance data and single-centre series, and one population-adjusted analysis found injury rates increasing by 293% for e-bikes and by 88% for powered scooters between 2019 and 2022. Most studies lack exposure denominators, so exposure-adjusted paediatric risk remains poorly quantified and rising counts cannot be equated with rising risk. Injuries affect adolescent boys disproportionately and peak at ages 11 to 14 years. Extremity and soft-tissue injuries predominate, while a clinically important minority sustain traumatic brain injury, craniofacial and dental trauma, or severe multisystem injury. Low helmet use and higher device speeds are consistently associated with more severe outcomes, although observational designs cannot establish causal effects and device type is confounded with rider age and road exposure in every available paediatric comparison. Powered devices are associated with greater severity than non-powered counterparts. Speed limitation and helmet promotion appear promising, but paediatric-specific effectiveness evidence remains limited. Prospective paediatric research incorporating exposure denominators is the priority.