• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.192-198
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• 2012

Objectives: Slip and fall accidents in the workplace are one of the top causes of work related fatalities and injuries. Previous studies have indicated that fall risk was related to postural and dynamic stability. However, the usage of this theoretical relationship was limited by laboratory based measuring instruments. The current study proposed a new method for stability assessment by use of inertial measurement units (IMUs). Methods: Accelerations at different body parts were recorded by the IMUs. Postural and local dynamic stability was assessed from these measures and compared with that computed from the traditional method. Results: The results demonstrated: 1) significant differences between fall prone and healthy groups in IMU assessed dynamic stability; and 2) better power of discrimination with multi stability index assessed by IMUs. Conclusion: The findings can be utilized in the design of a portable screening or monitoring tool for fall risk assessment in various industrial settings.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.283-290
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• 2012

Objectives: People who have chronic diseases, as well as gait imbalance or psychiatric drug use, may be susceptible to injuries from falls and slips. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of musculoskeletal diseases on incidental fall-related injuries among adults in Korea. Methods: We analyzed data from the 4th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007-2009), which are national data obtained by a rolling survey sampling method. The 1-year incidence of fall-related injuries was defined by health service utilization within the last year due to injury occurring after a slip and fall, and musculoskeletal diseases included osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, and back pain. To evaluate the effects of preexisting musculoskeletal diseases, adults diagnosed before the last year were considered the exposed group, and adults who had never been diagnosed were the unexposed group. Results: The weighted lifetime prevalence of musculoskeletal disease was 32 540 per 100 000 persons. Musculoskeletal diseases were associated with a higher risk of fall-related injury after adjustment for sex, age, residence, household income, education, occupation, visual disturbance, paralysis due to stroke, and medication for depression (odds ratio [OR], 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 1.93). As the number of comorbid musculoskeletal diseases increased, the risk of fall-induced injuries increased (p-value for trend <0.001). In particular, patients who had any musculoskeletal condition were at much higher risk of recurrent fall-related injuries (OR, 6.20; 95% CI, 1.06 to 36.08). Conclusions: One must take into account the risk of fall-related injuries and provide prevention strategies among adults who have musculoskeletal diseases.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.327-330
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• 2016

Currently, the world's elderly population continues to grow at a dramatic rate. As the number of senior citizens increases, detection of someone falling has attracted increasing attention for visual surveillance systems. This paper presents a novel fall-detection algorithm using motion estimation and an integrated spatiotemporal energy map of the object region. The proposed method first extracts a human region using a background subtraction method. Next, we applied an optical flow algorithm to estimate motion vectors, and an energy map is generated by accumulating the detected human region for a certain period of time. We can then detect a fall using k-nearest neighbor (kNN) classification with the previously estimated motion information and energy map. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively detect someone falling in any direction, including at an angle parallel to the camera's optical axis.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 2013

Objectives: Load carrying tasks are recognized as one of the primary occupational factors leading to slip and fall injuries. Nevertheless, the mechanisms associated with load carrying and walking stability remain illusive. The objective of the current study was to apply local dynamic stability measure in walking while carrying a load, and to investigate the possible adaptive gait stability changes. Methods: Current study involved 25 young adults in a biomechanics research laboratory. One tri-axial accelerometer was used to measure three-dimensional low back acceleration during continuous treadmill walking. Local dynamic stability was quantified by the maximum Lyapunov exponent (maxLE) from a nonlinear dynamics approach. Results: Long term maxLE was found to be significant higher under load condition than no-load condition in all three reference axes, indicating the declined local dynamic stability associated with load carrying. Conclusion: Current study confirmed the sensitivity of local dynamic stability measure in load carrying situation. It was concluded that load carrying tasks were associated with declined local dynamic stability, which may result in increased risk of fall accident. This finding has implications in preventing fall accidents associated with occupational load carrying.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.104-112
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• 1996

This paper investigates the job-related low back pains (LBP) in Kuro industrial complex where the manufacturing industries are prevailing. The accident compensation claims during 1992 to 1994 were reviewed and total of 726 LBP claims were analyzed among 7920 compensation claims. A LBP database was constructed to analyze the LBP profiles of this area. The most frequent cause of LBPs was the manual materials handling related lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing or pulling(45.9%) and the second-most frequent cause was fall and slip (29.8%) and collision (7.9%) was the following cause of the LBP.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2002

Earthquake are not frequent in korea but exist. The purpose of this study is to make a fixation(tie up) device against earthquake for radiologic department installation. It is considered that the device will prevent the X-ray equipment fall down, slip, Jumping therefor save the X-ray equipment itself and making possible to examine patients even when occuring earthquake, Discussion on how to make and how to set up was researched.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.257-267
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors of fall and to examine its results among patients aged 60 and over diagnosed with osteoporosis. Methods: A retrospective descriptive survey was conducted with 91 patients admitted in a university hospital in a city. Data were collected using an interview method with a structured questionnaire, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression. Results: In patients with osteoporosis, the intrinsic risk factors of falls were aging (OR = 3.742), gait disturbance (OR = 12.565), taking one or fewer medicine (OR = 7.873), and having two or more diseases (OR = 5.173). The extrinsic risk factors included the use of a bed (OR = 3.093), slippery floors (OR = 12.130), bathroom mat without anti-slip rubber backing (OR = 3.564), and presence of a night light on the passage from the bedroom to the bathroom (OR = 2.980). Conclusion: For the elderly aged over 70 who are most vulnerable to falls, screening tests such as bone mineral density (BMD) should be conducted in health examinations and the risk of fracture caused by osteoporosis should be communicated to the vulnerable elderly. Besides, development of new exercise programs combining weightbearing exercise is needed to prevent bone loss and increase functional activities.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.228-232
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• 2019

Background: The epidemiology of nasal fractures varies according to factors such as the era and area of the study, as well as the age of the patient. We compared the characteristics and causes of pediatric nasal fractures. Methods: A total of 2,321 patients with nasal fractures from 2010 to 2017 were examined. The patients were divided into age groups using the Korean school system of age classification. The causes of injury were divided into five groups: violence, fall or slip down, sports, road traffic accidents, and others. Fractures were classified using the Stranc and Robertson standard: vector of force and plane of fracture. Results: Violence was the most common cause of nasal fracture in patients older than 12 years. Violence was a significantly less frequent cause among patients younger than 12 years old than among adolescent and adult patients. Nasal fractures due to violence were not observed in patients younger than 10 years. Plane 2 and lateral force fractures were the most common; however, in patients younger than 12 years, frontal force fractures were significantly more frequent than were lateral force fractures. Conclusion: As children may simply be injured due to a fall or slip down, it is important for the parents and guardians to ensure their safety. As they become older, children should abstain from violence and be monitored. It is therefore very important to ensure that the environment is free of violence in order to prevent such injuries.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2013

Objectives: This study is planned to assess the trend of occupational injuries in Korea from 2001 to 2010. Methods: Ten years of occupational injuries, from 2001 to 2010, were analyzed in order to investigate the changing profiles according to the various characteristics of injuries; economic sectors, age of the injured, and type of injuries. The changing profile of occupational injuries was investigated by comparison with an index-created relative value based on the number of cases of reference category. Results: The fatalities of construction, forest, agriculture, and service show the increasing trend. The nonfatal occupational injuries of the manufacturing sector were higher than those of other sectors in every year but the fatal occupational injuries of construction workers were higher than those of the manufacturing sector. Occupational injuries occurring due to amputation and those of slip and trip increased. The number of occupational injuries for the worker groups of 24 years old and below decreased and 45 years old and above increased. In comparison to the figure of fall from height, the figures of slip and trip or caught in equipment are higher in every calendar year. Conclusion: This study find out construction, forest, agriculture, and service sectors, aged worker with 45 years old and over can be target population for the strategies of occupational safety.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.662-666
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• 1996

The variations of the surface topographical parameters for the analysis of the pedestrian slip and fall accidents during the sliding friction between the specially prepared floor specimens and three working shoes were investigated. The profile ordinate data for each flooring specimen were obtained at 1.1 .mu.m intervals using a laser scanning confocal microscope system along to the direction of sliding. A number of surface roughness parameters, that is, the centre line average (c.l.a.) and root mean square (r.m.s.) roughness, maximum height (Rtm), maximum mean peak height (Rpm), maximum mean depth (Rvm), and average asperity slope were calculated using a computer program and compared with the dynamic friction results. The analysis showed that the surface parameters undergo marked variations during the sliding process, but the variations were statistically significant. It was found that amongst various surface parameters, the maximum depth (Rvm) and the average asperity slope of the asperities were the biggest variation during the sliding proceeding. This result confirms the previous study and may suggests a new approach to monitoring the flooring environments with their service as the effort to reduce the pedestrain slip accident.