Most Americans recognize the importance of wearing a helmet to prevent head injuries, but more than half of the people in a recent poll still go without one while riding bicycles, according to a nationally representative survey from the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

Helmets are the most effective way to avoid head injuries and deaths caused by bike accidents, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. About 150,000 people ended up in emergency rooms in 2004 after such accidents, according to the most recent Consumer Product Safety Commission analysis, and about 700 people die in bike crashes each year.

In our survey of 1,000 adults taken in March, 82 percent said they felt it was "very" or "extremely" important to wear a helmet while cycling, but only 44 percent said they would actually wear one.

The better news is that a lot more people (77 percent) said they would wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle. Surprisingly, those ages 18 to 34 said they were more likely to wear a helmet most of the time (82 percent) than those 55 and up (68 percent). More than half of the adults said they'd wear a helmet while riding a moped or scooter, a snowmobile, and while playing hockey. Just 14 percent said they'd wear a helmet during water sports like surfing and waterskiing, and only 18 percent said they would wear a helmet while horseback riding.

Percentage of people wearing a helmet most of the time while…

Biking isn't the only activity where we found a discrepancy between people's beliefs and behavior. Ninety-two percent of the respondents said they thought it was important to wear a helmet while riding an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), but just 47 percent said they used a helmet most of the time while riding one. ATV accidents were responsible for an estimated 869 deaths in 2004 and 136,100 trips to an emergency room, many of them because of head injuries. As for ice hockey, even more people (95 percent) said they thought wearing a helmet was important, but just over half (51 percent) said they used one when playing the sport, which caused about 6,000 head injuries in 2004.

Apparently children inspire somewhat more responsible behavior among adults. Eighty-seven percent of the 25- to 54-year-olds with children at home said they would use a motorcycle helmet, compared with 74 percent of those without children. Our survey noted a similar role-model effect for bicyclists and ATV riders.

Percentage of 25- to 54-year-olds wearing a helmet most of the time while…