Occupational slip, trip, and fall-related injuries can the contribution of slipperiness be isolated?

TLDR

The injury surveillance systems differed in how they captured data and documented exposure to slipping. The study aimed to determine whether slipperiness could be isolated as a contributor to occupational slip, trip, and fall injuries and to recommend improved injury registry data collection to better quantify and address this risk. The authors examined six governmental and one industrial injury surveillance systems in the USA, UK, and Sweden to isolate slipperiness as a contributor to occupational slip, trip, and fall injuries. Slipperiness accounted for 40–50% of occupational fall injuries, representing 20–40% of disabling injuries and costing about US$6 billion annually in the U.S., but its burden was difficult to assess due to limitations in data system design.

Abstract

To determine if the contribution of slipperiness to occupational slip, trip and fall (STF)-related injuries could be isolated from injury surveillance systems in the USA, the UK and Sweden, six governmental systems and one industrial system were consulted. The systems varied in their capture approaches and the degree of documentation of exposure to slipping. The burden of STF-related occupational injury ranged from 20 to 40% of disabling occupational injuries in the developed countries studied. The annual direct cost of fall-related occupational injuries in the USA alone was estimated to be approximately US$6 billion. Slipperiness or slipping were found to contribute to between 40 and 50% of fall-related injuries. Slipperiness was more often a factor in same level falls than in falls to lower levels. The evaluation of the burden of slipperiness was hampered by design limitations in many of the data systems utilized. The resolution of large-scale injury registries should be improved by collecting more detailed incident sequence information to better define the full scope and contribution of slipperiness to occupational STF-related injuries. Such improvements would facilitate the allocation of prevention resources towards reduction of first-event risk factors such as slipping.