Epidemiology of playground equipment-related injuries to children in the United States, 1996-2005

The objective of this study is to describe the epidemiology of playground equipment-related injuries. This is a retrospective analysis of data for children 18 years old and younger from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System of the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission for 1996 through 2005. There were an estimated 2 136 800 playground equipment-related injuries to children 18 years and younger treated in hospital emergency departments in the United States during the 10-year period. The leading mechanism of injury was falls (75.1%), followed by impact/striking (10.5%), cutting/pinching/crushing (7.7%), entrapment/entanglement (1.4%), trip/slip (1.1%), and other/unknown (4.1%). The leading type of injury sustained by patients was a fracture (35.4%), followed by contusion/abrasion (19.6%) and laceration (19.6%). The consistency of the large annual number of playground equipment-related injuries to children is evidence that more needs to be done to prevent these injuries. More research should be conducted to develop and implement arm fracture-specific criteria for surface performance.