The likelihood of a child being injured by a falling TV has increased by 95% over the last 22 years, according to researchers at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
For their study, researchers looked at hospital records and injury data to determine how many children had been injured by a television from 1990 to 2011. They determined that injuries increased by 125.5% for children younger than five years old over the 22-year period. That number represented an overall rate increase of 95.3% since 1990.
The four most common types of injuries caused by televisions were:
- Television falling onto child.
- Child striking or falling into a television.
- Injuries caused while moving a television.
- Miscellaneous injuries.
Young Children Hurt Most Often
After analyzing all the data, researchers were able to draw some interesting conclusions about the demographics, injury types, and the causes of television accidents.
Researchers separated their results into three groups based on age. The first category was children aged 0-4; the second category was children aged 5-10; the third category was children aged 11-17. They found that:
- Children under the age of five represented 64.3% of all television injuries.
- Children between the ages of 5 and 10 made up 24.3% of all injuries.
- Children over the age of 10 represented 11.4% of all television injuries.
- The average age of a patient injured by a television was 4.7 years old.
Researchers said one of the main reasons for the rise in injuries was the increased number of televisions in homes. Others credit the spike to changing television technology. Nowadays, TVs are lighter, meaning they can be placed on unstable units like dressers, desks, cabinets, etc. Back in the 90’s, the largest televisions were extremely large and heavy, meaning they were often placed on the ground. This made them more stable and nearly impossible for a child to tip over.
More Data
Other relevant data from the study is included below:
- Males accounted for 60.8% of television injuries.
- Television falls were the most common type of injury (52.5%), followed by a child striking a TV (38.1%).
- The rate of injury is still relatively small; there were 0.85 incidents per 10,000 children in 1990, and that rate has grown to 1.66 incidents per 10,000 children in 2011.
- The rate of injury associated with a TV falling from a piece of furniture (dresser, bureaus, chest of drawers, or armoire) rose by 344.1%.
- Injuries to the head and neck were the most common type of injury (63.3%), followed by lower appendage injuries (21.5%).
Dr. Silverman comments
The authors should be commended for bringing this danger to greater light, but they didn’t really figure out why it has become so common. If you look at how TVs were built before the 90’s and how they are constructed now, the reason becomes obvious. Flat screen, unmounted T.V.s will fall because they are top heavy.
Think about it; the huge behemoth TV was lucky to be placed off the floor, and if so, was incredibly hard to knock over. The flat screen is light and is placed on multiple different pieces of furniture. It is much less stable and will fall over with much less force. I can imagine that mounting strategies are always best, and we all know how children love to climb.
The bottom line to me is this; the risk of injury is increased so greatly because people don’t see the obvious danger of placement. The TV should be secured to the wall behind it; mounting is essential. While I do not suggest that manufacturers should be responsible, I believe that every effort to encourage mounting of a TV be made so children don’t get the urge to try to climb onto the unit. Discontinue the stands and create easy mounting equipment and instructions.
Related source: MedPage Today
