Slips and falls in supermarkets: July 1999 to June 2009

June 2010

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There were at least 881 presentations to Victorian emergency departments for slips or falls in supermarkets over the 10 year period July 1999 to June 2009.

Age: Most injuries occurred in the 0-4 age range group (21%), followed by those aged 80+ (10%), and 75-79 year olds (7%).

Gender: 69% of the injuries were to females, and 31% to males.

Injury type: Fractures were the most common type of injury (23%). Other common types of injury were sprain or strain (22%), superficial injury (14%), and open wound (14%).

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Source: VEMD July 1999 to June 2009

Figure 1: Slips and falls in supermarkets ED presentations by type of injury

Body region: The most commonly injured body regions were the head/face/neck (28%) and the lower extremity (28%), followed by the upper extremity (23%).

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Figure 2: Slips and falls in supermarkets ED presentations by body region injured

Discharge status: Of the 881 presentations, 84% were treated in the ED and discharged home. Sixteen percent of injured persons were admitted to hospital for further treatment.

Selection of slips and falls in supermarkets case narratives:

"fall at supermarket, awkward landing on knees. pain swelling of right knee”

"head injury without loss of consciousness fell from shopping trolley on to supermarket floor”

"location supermarket caused by slipped on wet floor”

"tripped on display stand in supermarket”

"fall in supermarket (slipped on grape)”

"fell while trying to pull apart trolleys at supermarket”

"playing on bars between checkouts at supermarket, fell off injuring head”

"slipped on a lettuce leaf at supermarket, fell over and sprained ankle”

"was in supermarket standing on side of trolley and it tipped over and injured left knee”

"tripping and falling at supermarket, on outstretched hand and hitting left eyebrow”

"tripped over a cardboard box in supermarket, fell onto knee on concrete floor”

"patient tripped on rail of trolley bay at supermarket”

"slipped over in supermarket - ice cream on the floor”

"location supermarket doing sitting in trolley caused by fell out of trolley with slip”

"patient fell on slippery floor whilst supermarketing”

"location supermarket caused by slipped on water, fell injuring back/shoulder”

"head injury loss of consciousness - fell whilst running in the supermarket, hit forehead”

"slipped over on some fruit in supermarket, unable to weight bear”

"allegedly slipped on sugar in supermarket injuring back and neck”

"slipped on a grape at supermarket and fell”

"mother carrying child when slipped in supermarket, child's head struck ground”

"knocked by trolley in supermarket fall onto left side”

"laceration to chin, slipped on paper at supermarket”

"fell on lettuce at supermarket injuring hip”

"patient was shopping at the local supermarket, tripped on a mat and fell over. open wounds to left hand”

Data source: Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD July 1999 to June 2009 (10 years)
Search Strategy: Cases were selected by searching text narratives using the terms 'supermarket' 'super-market' 'Safeway' 'Coles' 'Aldi' 'IGA' and 'Ritchies'. Selected cases were then manually checked for relevance and unrelated cases excluded.