Advantages of Walking Experience on Icy Surface and Patricipating in Winter Sport in Preventing Slip and Fall Accidents

摘要

Slips and falls are accompanying hazards in cold environment. Literature does not reveal and studies on the impact of living experience in cold climate and participation in winter sport on slip and fall accidents on icy surfaces. The objective of this paper was to explore whether living and winter sport experience helps to prevent slip and fall accidents. A questionnaire survey was conducted among foreigners at Lulca University of Technology of Sweden, where winter season lasts for six months in a year. Seventy respondents with different living experience in cold environment replied(response rate, 31%). Ordinal and logistic regressions, Chi-square test and multiway frequency methods were used for data analyses. The results of ordinal regression showed that the slip frequency according to a 5-point rating scale decreased as the living experience in cold environment increased(B= -0.011 3, P =0.019). A logistic regression was applied to model the probability of fall events occurring based on the experience of living in cold climate. The results showed that the fall evnets reduced as living experience increased (B = -0.030, P =0.001). Chi-square test showed that fall events in those who took part in winter sport were significantly elss than in those who did not participate in winter sports ( χ~2 =10. 745, P = 0.001).The results did not show significant age and gender effect on slips and falls,which might be due to the limited age spectrum of the respondents (mainly form 20 to 39 years old). The findings imply that experience of living in cold environment and training in gait balance on ice and snow can have positive effects in preventing slips and falls for inecperienced workers and pedestrians. This study also revealed that the majority of fall events happened on hard ice covered with snow while wearing ordinry winter footwear,indicating the need to improve slip resistance.