THE INCIDENCE OF STAIRWAY INJURIES IN AUSTRIA

Stairs are among the most hazardous features of the everyday environme nt, yet stairway falls have received little research attention. A stra tified random sample of Austrian residents was surveyed in person in 1 989. Of over 55,000 respondents, 147 reported a stairway injury in the previous year that limited activity for at least one day. Thirty-seve n percent of these injuries resulted in hospitalization. Extrapolating to the entire country of 8 million people, each year some 20,000 Aust rians sustain serious stairway injuries resulting in over 7,500 hospit alizations. The incidence of stairway injury increases monotonically w ith age, and females are more at risk than males. The stereotypical st airway injury victim is an elderly woman, not highly educated, who is unmarried and living alone.