Playground Accidents and Injury
Search results of the National Institute of Health’s PubMed database on June 8, 2008 using the keywords “playground injury” displayed 173 articles. Of the 173 articles, 102 were epidemiologic studies, 13 were review articles, 9 addressed behavior, 7 were case studies of uncommon playground injuries, 4 were editorials, 6 addressed general playground safety, 10 addressed testing of surfacing and impact biomechanics and 19 addressed other injury topics while mentioning playgrounds.
Playground Injuries and NEISS
In 1971, the US CPSC commissioned the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) which is a probability sample of all consumer product injuries reporting to approximately 100 US hospital emergency departments. Sample playground injury cases were weighted to calculate a national estimate and the first national estimate for playground injuries in 1973 was 55,000.1 By 1975, the national estimate increased to 167,0001 and by 1994 increased to 244,340.2 The NEISS national estimate for all playground injuries for the years 1991 thru 2006 is shown in Figure 1.
1. CPSC. CPSC Invites Public To Develop Safety Regulation For Public Playground Equipment. March 7, 1975. Release # 75-024.
2. www.cpsc.com. downloaded May 9, 2008.
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| Figure 1. NEISS Playground Injury 1991-2006 |
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