The most common place for New Zealanders to be injured in a slip, trip or fall is at home. Photo: 123rf
ACC has paid out more than $1.6 billion in accident claims from slips, trips and falls in the 11 months from July 2023.
Injury Prevention programme lead James Whitaker said such non-sports related slips, trips and falls were the biggest contributor to injuries in New Zealand.
He said about 770,000 New Zealanders had a slip, trip or fall in any given year, and the latest data showed home was the most common place for that to occur.
Whitaker said that was likely due to multi-tasking.
"If you're walking around and you're looking at your cell phone, for example, and trying to text someone back, or you're checking the the surf forecast or whatever you're doing, you're going to increase your chance of having a slip triple form compared to if you're just walking around and looking where you're going."
For more than 165,000 claims, people were walking before a fall, making it the most common prior activity.
Whitaker said it was important to be careful, especially around the winter season.
"A lot of us might have driveways or decks or steps that have a bit of moss or lichen or a bit of slipperiness on them."
He said it was important people made sure surfaces were not slippery, not just for those who live at a home, but also for visitors.
"[There are] people who come round and check your your meter, like your gas meter and electricity meter and stuff, you're putting them at risk if you're not getting rid of those hazards."
ACC has paid out more than $1.6 billion since July 2023 for injuries sustained in trips, slips and falls. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Hazard prevention
Whitaker said the first step was to identify anything that could cause a trip at home.
"If you've got rugs, it's a good idea to put like an anti-slip mat under. If that if you've got extension cords and other cords around home, make sure they're not going across your most common walkways. Try to keep those cords to the edge of the room."
He said if there were children at home, it was important to pick any toys lying around.
"Make it a fun thing because you don't want to wake up in the morning and stand on Lego or trip over a dinosaur."
But hazard prevention was not just about tidying up at home.
"A really awesome way to prevent falls and to reduce the impact injury-wise if you have a fall is to improve your strength and balance, and this is especially important if you're 55 or older, because we tend to lose some of our strength and balance for a range of reasons."
He said classes like tai chi could help.
Whitaker also suggested downloading the Nymbl app that has exercises and techniques to help.
"It also has cool quiz questions in there as well, so that your brain is engaged, and even though I think you shouldn't multitask, most people do so it means that you can work on your strength and balance while your brain is thinking about something else, because that reflects reality.
"It's been proven that if you use it just two or three times a week for even 10 minutes each time, you can reduce your injury chance by 30 percent and that's huge."
