A fall can be dangerous at any age — from toddler to senior and everything in between. A recent study found that more than 43,000 children are injured in the bathtub every year in the United States.
The bathtub can be a dangerous place. Other studies have looked at the risk of burns from hot water and drowning and near-drowning incidents. Now researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Policy (part of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio) are taking a look at slips and falls.
Researchers looked at eighteen years of bathtub slip and fall data relating to children. An average of one hundred and twenty children are injured in the tub every day — JUST from slips and falls. Over the eighteen years of data, that number didn’t change much.
Nearly eight hundred thousand incidents occurring between 1990 and 2007 were reviewed by the research team. Data came from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and included reports of injury to children age eighteen and younger where the child was seen by a doctor or at the emergency room.
The highest occurrence of injury was in children under the age of two, and children four and under accounted for more than half of all bathtub slip and fall injuries studied. Cuts were the most common result — nearly sixty percent of the reported injuries — and nearly half of all injuries were to the face. Less than three percent of the cases in the study required that the child be admitted to the hospital for treatment or observation.
Researchers were quick to point out that these injuries are largely preventable.
- Parents should supervise young children while in the tub — especially children aged four and under (this age group accounted for more than half of all bathtub slip and fall injuries). Older children should be cautioned against horseplay in the tub or shower.
- Bathtubs and showers should have slip-resistant mats. There should also be a slip-resistant mat outside the tub or shower. These can help prevent slips and falls.
- Tub and shower manufacturers can work on improving the current slip prevention features — floor surfaces could be redesigned to increase friction, and vertical surfaces could include more grips or handrails. The material of the tub or shower itself could be changed to something more forgiving in case of a fall.