ArticlesSafety of surfaces and equipment for children in playgrounds
Introduction
Playgrounds were originally developed during the nineteenth century to offer children play opportunities in an increasingly industrialised society.1 The safety of playgrounds is important, not only for the prevention of injuries, but also to assure families that they are safe places for their children to play. Public playground provision, safety, and maintenance in the UK are largely the responsibility of the local-government councils.2 Much work has been done to develop safer equipment and surfaces and in producing acceptable saftey standards (BS 5696 and BS 7188).3 However, these standards have largely been developed in the laboratory4 and there has been little analysis of real children being injured in real playgrounds.5
Impact-absorbing surfaces are a key safety feature. These types of surface were introduced to reduce the severity of head injuries from falls6 but their effectiveness has been debated and they are costly.7 Various surfaces are available, including bark and impact-absorbing rubberised surfacing. Information on injuries that children acquire in the playground is vital for those who develop safety standards, produce equipment, and plan playgrounds. Analysis of the effectiveness of these features is particularly timely since European safety standards for playground safety are currently being developed.
In 1992, we began our research into playground injuries with the aim of investigating the correlation between accidents and specific playgrounds, equipment, and surfaces. We found that for the study to be effective we had to develop a close association with the local authority. Therefore, we developed a safety and research partnership with Cardiff City Council. The council has an active policy of playground development, maintenance, and safety.
Our first study described the pattern of injuries on different playground surfaces.8 Although bark seemed to be protective against head injury, many children sustained arm fractures after falling from playground equipment on to bark surfaces. During this study we realised that to compare risks, we needed to develop a method of measuring exposure of children to playground injuries. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of different surfaces and equipment in prevention of injuries. We did this by relating children's injuries in public playgrounds to their exposure to injury.
Section snippets
Methods
In this collaborative study between the Department of Child Health and the Sports and Leisure Department of Cardiff County Council, we recorded the surface types of 85 playgrounds and the type and height of equipment. We investigated injuries sustained while playing on swings, slides, climbing-frames, and monkey bars (a series of parallel bars or rings suspended above the ground between which children swing). We identified children aged between 0 and 14 years who in 1994 attended the Accident
Results
There were 85 playgrounds in Cardiff in 1994, with tree bark (conforming to British Standards), impact-absorbing rubberised, or concrete or tarmac surfaces (table 1). 330 children attended the Accident and Emergency Department of the Cardiff Royal Infirmary with a playground injury. Full accident details were obtained for 301 children. The mean and median ages were both 7·4 years (range 1·2–14·9 years); 167 (55·5%) were boys. 48 (16%) children were admitted to hospital, 44 with a fracture. Only
Discussion
The importance of reliable estimates of exposure in the analysis of playground accident data cannot be overemphasised. One bark-surfaced playground had a high rate of injuries, but exposure data showed that in 1994, this playground was used at least five times more frequently than the other playgrounds with bark surfaces. Our method of measuring exposure of children to injuries relies on the observations of the people who work in the playgrounds. Results should, therefore, be reproducible and
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Head and neck fracture patterns associated with playground equipment use in the pediatric population
2020, International Journal of Pediatric OtorhinolaryngologyCitation Excerpt :LaForest et al. have suggested that limiting maximum equipment height to less than 6.5 feet and also using protective material under playground equipment with a high level of resilience, such as sand, will help reduce the rate of pediatric head injuries by decreasing the rate of the head's peak deceleration [8]. Using a correlational study, Mott et al. calculated playground injury rates for children (aged 0–14 years) and found that the risk of injury in playgrounds with concrete surfaces was higher than that in playgrounds with bark and rubber surfaces [9]. A previous study by Mott et al. noted that climbing equipment such as monkey bars contribute a disproportionate amount of injuries, including a fracture rate that is twice as high as other climbing structures, when considering injuries to the entire body (preventing injuries in public playgrounds, etc.) [9].
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