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- As the leading cause of children’s hospitalisations, more efforts should be made throughout Europe to reduce fall injuries. The following measures have proven to reduce the risk of falls happening or to reduce the severity of injuries:
- Stair gates - have been shown to assist in the reduction of falls down stairs to young children when fitted securely at the top and bottom of stairs.
- Stair design – estimates show that increasing stair tread depths in new dwellings in the United Kingdom would prevent over 1250 accidents and probably 2 deaths in the first five years of enacting this standard9. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents recommends that the rise and tread depth of all steps and staircases within the home should have a rise not exceeding 170mm and a going of at least 250mm.
- Window restrictors – a 96% reduction in fall admissions occurred after implementation of a regulation requiring window bars.
- Voluntary product standards – a voluntary baby walker standard introduced in 1997 in the United States to make walkers wider than doorframes, to stop at the top of the stairs without falling over, and to change the number and design of the caster wheels resulted in a 63% decrease in emergency department visits due to walker injuries.
This information has been taken from the Fact sheet on Falls published by the Alliance in October 2006. This fact sheet including the references to the information above is available here.
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