Injuries related to TV tip-overs (all ages)

March 2010

There were 612 emergency department (ED) presentations for injury related to TV tip-overs over the nine-year period January 2000 to December 2008, an average of 68 cases per year.

Age: More than half of all ED presentations were young children aged 0-4 years (53%). Children aged 5-9 years and adolescents aged 10-14 years accounted for 10% and 5% of cases, respectively. Thirty-two percent of ED presentations were aged 15 years and older.

Gender: Males were over-represented among injured young children aged 0-4 years (58%), whereas females were over-represented in adolescents aged 10-14 years (56%) and persons aged 15 years and older (55%).

Figure 1 TV tip-over injuries by age group

Injury type: Superficial injuries (abrasions and bruises) were the most common injury type (22%), followed by fractures (16%), open wounds (15%), and sprains/strains (14%). Among children aged 0-4 years and adolescents aged 10-14 years, the most frequent injury type was superficial injuries, accounting for 28% and 24% of cases respectively. In contrast, open wounds were most frequent among children aged 5-9 years (24%) and persons aged 15 years and older (21%).

Body region: Overall, 49% of all injuries were to the lower extremity of which damage to the foot including toes accounted for 55% of all lower extremity cases. Other common body regions injured included the head, face and neck (25%) and the upper extremity (12%). Among 0-4 year olds and persons aged 15 years and older, the body site most commonly injured was the feet and toes (22% and 40% of cases respectively). By contrast, the head was the site most commonly injured among 5-9 year-olds (26%) and 10-14 year-olds (22%).

Figure 2 TV tip-over injury ED presentations by body region injured

Place of occurrence: Most cases occurred in the home (86%).

Discharge status: Of the 612 ED presentations, 90% were treated in the ED and discharged home. Ten percent of injured persons were admitted to hospital for further treatment, mostly young children aged 0-4 years (62% of cases) with fractures (39% of cases).

Risks:

• TVs being placed on unstable surfaces - the imbalanced weight of the TV increases the likelihood of the TV falling (Ota, Maxson, & Okada, 2006).
• TV sets are hardly ever secured with brackets or safety straps (Ota et al., 2006).
• Young children may not recognise the danger of climbing onto something that is unstable (Sikron, Glasser, & Peleg, 2006).

Recommendations:

• Television manufacturers should include advice and instructions on how to safely secure the TV, and warnings should also be attached to all TV sets (Marnewick, Dansey, Morreau, & Hamill, 2010).
• The TV should be set as close to the ground as possible, and should be secured using safe and acceptable methods (Marnewick et al., 2010).
• Place remote controls away from the TV set, and ensure that children don't play near the TV (Marnewick et al., 2010).
• The New Zealand Earthquake Commission website has some tips on how to secure TV sets ( http://www.eq-iq.org.nz/)

References

• Marnewick, J., Dansey, R., Morreau, P., & Hamill, J. (2010). Television tip-overs: The Starship Children's Hospital experience and literature review. Injury, doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2009.12.015
• Ota, F.S., Maxson, R.T., & Okada, P.J. (2006). Childhood Injuries Caused by Falling Televisions. Academic Emergency Medicine, 13 (6), 700-303.
• Sikron, F., Glasser, S., & Peleg, K. (2006). Children injured following TV tipovers in Israel, 1997-2003. Child: care, health & development, 33 (1), 45-51.

Data source: Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD January 2000 to December 2008 (9 years)
Search Strategy: Cases were selected by searching text narratives using the terms 'TV,' 'T.V.,' 'television,' 'LCD' and 'plasma'. Selected cases were then manually checked for relevance and were excluded if the narratives referred to falling TV cabinets/units, falling TV antennas or the person falling onto the television.