Dimensions and Design of swimming pool fences and balcony - ANEC

is no substitute in most risky situations for
developmentally appropriate parental
supervision of young children. However, to define
adequate supervision we must consider a
variety of constraints, such as the age of the
child, the hazards present in the environment
and the type of injury to which the child is most
susceptible. For example, an adequate
supervision of a 5-month-old baby in a
swimming pool implies touch and continuous
attention, while intermittent attention from a
distant location might be adequate supervision
for 5-year-old playing in a safe environment.
Caregiver behaviours should also be considered
within a larger context, as proposed by Saluja
et al. (2004) in their conceptual model for
caregiver decisions about injury prevention
strategies. According to theses authors, risk
perception is dependent on the characteristics
of the caregiver, the child, and the environment.
Prevention of childhood injuries has led to a
debate concerning the relative merits of
focusing on modifying the environment versus
adaptive behaviour to reduce injury risk.
Researchers have tried to devise ways to
decrease the necessity for supervision by
pursuing different kinds of interventions to
reduce environmental hazards (e.g., stair safety
barriers, swimming pool fences, safety plugs or
bicycle helmets). However, as long as the child
depends on the caregiver to shut the stair safety
barrier or the swimming pool fence, to put the
safety plug on the electrical outlet, or to remind
them to wear the bicycle helmet, the study of
caregiver behaviour will remain of fundamental
importance.
2.3.9 Falling: a review
Falls represent an important cause of injury and
death. Estimates for the US indicate that three
million children require emergency department
care for fall-related injuries of all kinds annually
(AAP, 2001). Falling impact accidents may be of
very different kinds: from a simple traumatic
experience with no physical consequences up
to death. Statistics show that some factors are
related with higher incidence of falls. These
factors will be presented in the next sections.
2.3.9.1 Causes
Falls do not distribute homogeneously
throughout the year, as they are prevalent in the
summer, nor along the day – falls happen mainly
in the afternoon. Presumably because in the
summer windows tend to be open, and in the
afternoon children tend to be at home. One study
(Istre, McCoy, Stowe, Davies, Zane, Anderson, &
Wiebe, 2003) refers that in Dallas spring and
autumn seasons have a higher incidence of falls
than summer, because the heat of summer in
Dallas led to an almost universal use of air
conditioning, with windows kept closed. They also
reported a peak of falls around meal times when
supervision might be more careless. These results
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Faculdade de Motricidade Humana
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa