[Same-level fall injuries among healthcare and retail workers: Focus on outdoor incidents]

Same-level falls are the most frequent type of occupational accidents in Japan, and approximately 35% of these accidents occurred among healthcare and retail workers. The aim of this study was to analyze the status of same-level falls in the healthcare and retail industries, where many such incidents occur, with a focus on outdoor same-level falls and to elucidate their characteristics.

This study targeted occupational accidents due to same-level falls that resulted in four or more days of absence from work among healthcare and retail workers, based on data from the 2021 Occupational Injury Database. From 29,605 occupational injury cases, we identified 2,536 same-level falls and ultimately extracted 2,424 cases for analysis. A physical therapist and industrial physician collaborated to conduct a detailed textual examination of the selected cases in terms of accident onset status. Variables related to the cause of the accident, causative substances, and accident locations were prepared. For the analysis, simple tabulation and cross-aggregation were performed. A chi-square test was used to investigate the correlations between accident location, accident cause, and causative substances.

The mean age of the injured workers was 57.0 years (standard deviation, 12.7). The accident location was outdoors in 35.9% of cases. In winter (December to February), the proportion of outdoor accidents increased between 44.2% and 49.5%. The most common cause of outdoor accidents was slipping (35.4%), and the most common causative substance was snow/ice (20.6%). Snow/ice was involved in 44.1% of the same-level falls that occurred outdoors during winter, with some occurring in parking lots while transporting other people.

The results revealed that, in addition to indoor same-level falls, outdoor same-level falls during winter were common among healthcare and retail workers. We found that slipping on snow or ice was the primary cause of these accidents. Therefore, it is important that, in addition to risk reduction measures targeting indoor same-level falls, preventive measures should be introduced for outdoor same-level falls among healthcare and retail workers.