KEY POINTS:
Staying at home and slamming the door on the outside world is not necessarily the safest thing to do, a study shows.
Research by Otago University, Wellington, showed there were many hazards around the home where injuries occurred to put people in hospital and in wheelchairs.
"As it's Safety NZ Week, it's important to draw attention to research which shows that injury hazards around the home may have quite a significant impact on the likelihood of someone suffering an injury," Otago University public health researcher Michael Keall said yesterday.
Dr Keall, with other researchers at the university and Building Research Australia New Zealand (Branz), studied 102 houses in Lower Hutt in relation to injury hazards.
They found there was a 22 per cent increase in the likelihood of people injuring themselves associated with each additional injury hazard in the home.
Dr Keall said the research identified a number of potential injury hazards, such as slippery bathroom surfaces, excessively hot water, missing handrails on stairs, steps between the kitchen and the dining area, as well as poorly maintained or slippery outdoor steps and pathways amongst others.
Dr Keall said older people tended to have more accidents and injuries at home because they spent more time there.
"Older people are more fragile obviously and more liable to fall down.
"Potentially our research may show home hazards worth fixing, which would have a significant saving for ACC," Dr Keall said.
In the last financial year ACC paid out more than $377 million for home injuries.
Dr Keall said that in the United States in 2004, 46 per cent of medically treated injuries occurred in and around the home.
The study showed 40 per cent of houses had between seven and nine hazards, while 30 per cent had more than 10 hazards.
The study has been published in the international journal Accident and Analysis Prevention.
- NZPA
