The researchers Anna Carlsson, Chalmers Industrial Technology (Chalmers Industriteknik), Gothenburg and Jörgen Lundälv, University of Gothenburg and Umeå University, Sweden, are the authors behind a study regarding rollator related pedestrian single accidents and collision events in Sweden.
The rollator is a Swedish invention, invented by the Västerås Hospital social worker Aina Wifalk (1928-1983) in the early 1980s. The current study is based on data from 2,020 accidents involving 2,305 persons extracted from the Swedish Traffic Accident Data Acquisition (STRADA) database, the Swedish Transport Agency’s accident database on injuries and accidents within the road transport system. For consistency, a subset of data (N = 745) was analysed in order to investigate the development of accidents over a period of 10 years.
The results show that the number of rollator accidents in Sweden increased by approximately 80% during 2007–2016.
Women most exposed to accidents and injuries
Females dominate the injury statistics in single accidents, collisions, as well as fatal outcome, which may be due to exposure and/or differences in physical characteristics. Single accidents are much more common than collisions (n=1,668 and n=352, respectively) and the injury consequences are at least as serious. Data from the present study revealed that the frequency of minor injuries (ISS 1–3) is 4.3 times, moderate (ISS 4–8) 6.0 times and serious injuries (ISS 9–15) 8.9 times higher in single accidents than in collisions.
The two researchers suggest that future research should follow up on accident and injury statistics for accidents. Areas with the potential to reduce the risk of rollator accidents include improved rollator stability and design, appropriate user training programmes, adequate maintenance and service programmes and, above all, a functioning infrastructure for rollators. Injury registration at hospitals in Sweden is very important for traffic medicine research, and this study is a good example of how STRADA can be utilised in research.
The study has been published in the new scientific journal “Traffic Safety Research – An Interdisciplinary Journal (TSR)” founded in 2021 in collaboration between Lund University in Sweden, Technical University (TU) in Delft (Netherlands) and the international organisation International Co-operation on Theories and Concepts in Traffic Safety (ICTCT).
The study can be downloaded from the journal’s website:
https://tsr.international/TSR/article/view/23512
For further information, please contact:
Anna Carlsson
PhD, Researcher
Chalmers Industriteknik
SWEDEN
+46 (0)70–594 36 50
+46 (0)31–772 36 50
anna.carlsson@chalmersindustriteknik.se
Jörgen Lundälv
Associate Professor in Social Work
Department of Social Work
University of Gothenburg
SWEDEN
+46 (0)31–786 5795
+46 (0)76–172 4711
jorgen.lundalv@socwork.gu.se
Associate Professor in Traffic Medicine
Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Unit of Surgery
Umeå University
SWEDEN
jorgen.lundalv@umu.se
+46 (0)76–172 4711