Skip to main content
PMC home page
Injury Prevention logoLink to Injury Prevention
. 2003 Sep;9(3):210–213. doi: 10.1136/ip.9.3.210

Injury and frequency of use of playground equipment in public schools and parks in Brisbane, Australia

J Nixon 1, C Acton 1, B Wallis 1, M Ballesteros 1, D Battistutta 1
PMCID: PMC1730976  PMID: 12966007

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of use of play equipment in public schools and parks in Brisbane, Australia, and to estimate an annual rate of injury per use of equipment, overall and for particular types of equipment.

Methods: Injury data on all children injured from playground equipment and seeking medical attention at the emergency department of either of the two children's hospitals in the City of Brisbane were obtained for the years 1996 and 1997. Children were observed at play on five different pieces of play equipment in a random sample of 16 parks and 16 schools in the City of Brisbane. Children injured in the 16 parks and schools were counted, and rates of injury and use were calculated.

Results: The ranked order for equipment use in the 16 schools was climbing equipment (3762 uses), horizontal ladders (2309 uses), and slides (856 uses). Each horizontal ladder was used 2.6 times more often than each piece of climbing equipment. Each horizontal ladder was used 7.8 times more than each piece of climbing equipment in the sample of public parks. Slides were used 4.6 times more than climbing equipment in parks and 1.2 times more in public schools.

The annual injury rate for the 16 schools and 16 parks under observation was 0.59/100 000 and 0.26/100 000 uses of equipment, respectively.

Conclusions: This study shows that annual number of injuries per standardized number of uses could be used to determine the relative risk of particular pieces of playground equipment. The low overall rate of injuries/100 000 uses of equipment in this study suggests that the benefit of further reduction of injury in this community may be marginal and outweigh the economic costs in addition to reducing challenging play opportunities.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (55.7 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Chalmers D. J., Marshall S. W., Langley J. D., Evans M. J., Brunton C. R., Kelly A. M., Pickering A. F. Height and surfacing as risk factors for injury in falls from playground equipment: a case-control study. Inj Prev. 1996 Jun;2(2):98–104. doi: 10.1136/ip.2.2.98. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Coppens N. M., Gentry L. K. Video analysis of playground injury-risk situations. Res Nurs Health. 1991 Apr;14(2):129–136. doi: 10.1002/nur.4770140207. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Laforest S., Robitaille Y., Lesage D., Dorval D. Surface characteristics, equipment height, and the occurrence and severity of playground injuries. Inj Prev. 2001 Mar;7(1):35–40. doi: 10.1136/ip.7.1.35. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Lewis L. M., Naunheim R., Standeven J., Naunheim K. S. Quantitation of impact attenuation of different playground surfaces under various environmental conditions using a tri-axial accelerometer. J Trauma. 1993 Dec;35(6):932–935. doi: 10.1097/00005373-199312000-00020. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Macarthur C., Hu X., Wesson D. E., Parkin P. C. Risk factors for severe injuries associated with falls from playground equipment. Accid Anal Prev. 2000 May;32(3):377–382. doi: 10.1016/s0001-4575(99)00079-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Mack M. G., Sacks J. J., Thompson D. Testing the impact attenuation of loose-fill playground surfaces. Inj Prev. 2000 Jun;6(2):141–144. doi: 10.1136/ip.6.2.141. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Morrongiello B. A., Dawber T. Mothers' responses to sons and daughters engaging in injury-risk behaviors on a playground: implications for sex differences in injury rates. J Exp Child Psychol. 2000 Jun;76(2):89–103. doi: 10.1006/jecp.2000.2572. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Mott A., Evans R., Rolfe K., Potter D., Kemp K. W., Sibert J. R. Patterns of injuries to children on public playgrounds. Arch Dis Child. 1994 Oct;71(4):328–330. doi: 10.1136/adc.71.4.328. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Mott A., Rolfe K., James R., Evans R., Kemp A., Dunstan F., Kemp K., Sibert J. Safety of surfaces and equipment for children in playgrounds. Lancet. 1997 Jun 28;349(9069):1874–1876. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(96)10343-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Sacks J. J., Smith J. D., Kaplan K. M., Lambert D. A., Sattin R. W., Sikes R. K. The epidemiology of injuries in Atlanta day-care centers. JAMA. 1989 Sep 22;262(12):1641–1645. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Sibert J. R., Mott A., Rolfe K., James R., Evans R., Kemp A., Dunstan F. D. Preventing injuries in public playgrounds through partnership between health services and local authority: community intervention study. BMJ. 1999 Jun 12;318(7198):1595–1595. doi: 10.1136/bmj.318.7198.1595. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Sosin D. M., Keller P., Sacks J. J., Kresnow M., van Dyck P. C. Surface-specific fall injury rates on Utah school playgrounds. Am J Public Health. 1993 May;83(5):733–735. doi: 10.2105/ajph.83.5.733. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Injury Prevention are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES