Revised playground safety standards could help prevent broken arms

Playground-related injury accounts for about six per cent of all hospital-treated childhood injuries. Upper limb fracture is the most common injury, accounting for 43 per cent of presentations to hospital emergency departments and 74 per cent of hospital admissions for playground injury in children.

Recent research on arm fractures in playgrounds was carried out by Dr Shauna Sherker and Prof. Joan Ozanne-Smith of the Accident Research Centre at Monash University. They re-created children's falls and analysed data on 402 children aged less than 13 years who had suffered a broken arm after falling from playground equipment. The children were identified by emergency department staff in five Victorian hospitals between October 2000 and December 2002.

Previous research had identified the height of the equipment from which the child falls and the nature of the surface onto which the child lands as risk factors for playground injury. Current safety standards state that playground equipment height should not exceed 2.5m and that surface material should be of an impact absorbing nature and installed at a minimum depth of 20cm. The current study was undertaken to determine whether playgrounds where children sustained an arm fracture complied with these safety guidelines.

The authors found that 98 per cent of playgrounds where fall-related arm fractures had occurred had a recommended impact absorbing surface material. In addition, 92 per cent of playgrounds complied with recommended maximum equipment height (mean 2.04m).  Compliance with recommended surface depth (mean 11.1cm) was poor, however 86 per cent of case playground surfaces would have 'passed' current impact performance safety tests. Despite the high compliance of playgrounds with current safety standards, arm fractures continue to occur.

Current playground safety standards are based on "head injury criterion" (HIC) (a measure used to predict the probability of fatal head injury in the event of a fall), which may be inadequate to address the risk of arm fracture.

"We believe that injury criteria more closely related to the risk of arm fracture should be developed and included in revised playground safety standards to complement HIC as a guide to playground safety," Dr Shauna Sherker said.

The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.

Journal Issue June 7, 2004

This media release was originally issued on Wednesday May 26, 2004

CONTACT     Dr Shauna Sherker (02) 9385 4741
                  Prof Joan Ozanne-Smith 0419 871 266 / (03) 9905 1810
                  Judith TOKLEY, AMA Public Affairs, 0408 824 306 / 02 6270 5471