Occupational falls: interventions for fall detection, prevention and safety promotion

Abstract

Falls and fall-related injuries are remarkably common in occupational settings. In 2017, 227,760 workers sustained fall-related injuries leading to a loss of working days and 887 workers sustained lethal falls. Causation of falls could be multifactorial with the contribution of extrinsic and intrinsic factors. The outcome of such falls could vary from simple contusions to fatal injuries. Occupational falls not only affect employees’ health and quality of life but also decrease workplace productivity due to loss of working days and worker performance insufficiency as a result of sustained injuries. Furthermore, health costs, worker compensations, and replacement workers add to the economic burden of the workplace. Thus, fall detection and prevention in the workplace is mandatory. There are distinct traditional and contemporary methods of fall prevention established in the human factors and ergonomics field with unique advantages and disadvantages. Selection of an appropriate method should be done vigilantly considering feasibility, availability of facilities, and affordability by the administration. This article summarises and expands on previous literature suggested for early detection and prevention of occupational falls. Concepts discussed in the paper will benefit human factors engineers, ergonomists, health and safety engineers, occupational therapists, and other health care professionals.Relevance to human factors / ergonomics theoryFalls are unavoidable in the ergonomic settings but could be minimized. This article provides the currently available fall prevention and detection methods along with the strengths and weaknesses of each method. The article will provide an overview of such methods to the employers in order to select and implement the most applicable methods to their workplace.