Treadmill-related injury (all ages)

July 2008

There were 256 cases of treadmill-related injury reported by Victorians who presented to one of the 37 Emergency Departments (ED) who contribute to the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) over the 5-year period 2002/03 to 2006/07. Frequency: As can be seen from Table 1, the frequency of injuries associated with treadmill appeared to increase over the 5-year period, with a peak of 97 cases in 2006. However the increase in treadmill injuries may be due to 8 additional hospitals contributing data from 2004 and the improvement in the quality of the narrative data.

Table 1: Treadmill-related injury ED presentations by year

Source: VEMD, Jul ‘02 - Jun ‘07

Age: Children and teenagers aged 0-14 years suffered a disproportionate number of treadmill-related injuries (60%), mostly the 0-4 year age group (38% of all treadmill cases reported) (Figure 1).

 
Source: VEMD, Jul '02 - Jun ‘07
Figure 1: Treadmill-related injury ED presentations by age group (n=256)

Gender: Males were slightly over-represented in ED presentations (52%).

Cause: As shown in Figure 2, most treadmill-related injuries were caused by falls (28%) and collision with the treadmill (25%) .

Source: VEMD, Jul ‘02 - Jun ‘07
Figure 2: Treadmill-related injury ED presentations by cause (n=256)

Nature of injury: As illustrated in Figure 3, the most common injuries reported were superficial injuries such as abrasions/bruises (24%), followed by open wound (22%), burn/corrosion (14%) and fractures (10%).

Body region: Some 60% of injuries were to the upper extremity, of which damage to the fingers and hands accounted for most of the cases (44%). The lower extremity was the second most commonly injured body region (24%), followed by the head (8%). Multiple injuries and trunk injuries were rather infrequent, constituting only 3% and 1% of all injuries, respectively.

Source: VEMD Jul ‘02 – Jun ‘07
Figure 3: Treadmill-related injury ED presentations by type of injury (n=256)

Discharge status: Eighty-nine percent of persons with treadmill-related injuries were discharge home from the ED. Twelve percent required hospital admission, mostly young children aged 0-4 years.