Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Jun;16(3):185-9.
doi: 10.1136/ip.2009.025494.

Effectiveness of pads and enclosures as safety interventions on consumer trampolines

Keith Alexander  1 , David Eager, Carl Scarrott, George Sushinsky
Affiliations

Effectiveness of pads and enclosures as safety interventions on consumer trampolines

Keith Alexander et al. Inj Prev. 2010 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Trampolines continue to be a major source of childhood injury.

Objective: To examine available data on trampoline injuries in order to determine the effectiveness of padding and enclosures.

Design: Trampoline injuries from the NEISS database from 2002 to 2007 were reclassified into five cause-categories, to examine evidence for injury trends.

Setting: The ASTM trampoline standard recommendations for safety padding were upgraded in 1999 and enclosures were introduced in 1997. This is the first study to examine the impact of these changes.

Patients: The sampling frame comprises patients with NEISS product code 'consumer trampolines' (1233). A systematic sample of 360 patients each year is taken.

Interventions: The prominent interventions recommended by the ASTM are netting enclosures to prevent falling off and safety padding to cover frames and springs.

Main outcome measures: Proportion of injuries within each cause-category and trend estimates.

Results: There was no evidence for a decline within the injury cause-categories that should be prevented by these interventions from 2002 to 2007.

Conclusions: If these interventions were effective the associated injury causes would be in decline. Instead they remain close to half of all trampoline injuries with no significant change over the period of the study. Follow-up studies are proposed to determine the reasons. Given the number of injuries involved it is recommended that steps be taken to ensure these safety interventions or their equivalents are in place, work properly and remain effective for the life of consumer trampolines.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: Three of the authors of this paper are closely interconnected with organisations that will be affected by the paper. One reason for the collaboration has been to ensure some balance. Nevertheless potential conflicts of interest are listed in order of importance below. KA is the inventor of the Springfree trampoline and has a minor financial interest in the company now manufacturing it. The Springfree trampoline is arguably better designed to prevent the injuries that the paper highlights, than others on the market. This author could be said to have a vested interest in publishing this paper; KA is also a member, and the minutes secretary of the ASTM subcommittee F08-17, ‘Trampolines and Related Equipment’. This paper has the potential to direct strategy for that committee. DE undertakes testing of trampolines for compliance with the Australian Trampoline standard, AS4989, and is also on the committee responsible for review of that standard. Results from this paper could theoretically contribute to this standard and consequently to DE's testing work; DE is currently undertaking a funded project to investigate the safety record of Springfree trampolines in the Australian market. This could potentially bias his views on this paper. DE, GS and KA are all members of the ASTM subcommittee F08-17, so potentially they could form a group controlling the committee. GS has recently retired from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the US government organisation responsible for the database used in the paper. CS has no competing interests but has become involved as a statistician.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A typical consumer trampoline and enclosure after less than 3 years of use. The pads have deteriorated and been removed, the enclosure net is torn. The subject bounced through the hole in the net and fell to the ground, fracturing his wrist (with permission from Dr S Gooch, University of Canterbury, New Zealand).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Analysis of NEISS data averaged from 2002 to 2007, in cause-categories useful for the evaluation of specific injury prevention measures.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Relative proportions of the five injury cause-categories with time. Simple linear regression estimates are shown for ‘falling-off’ and ‘frame and springs’ categories; 95% CIs are shown.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. US Standard ASTM F381-06 Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Components, Assembly, and Use of a Trampoline. 2006
    1. US Standard ASTM F2225-09 Standard Safety Specification for Consumer Trampoline Enclosures. 2009
    1. NEISS database http://www.cpsc.gov/LIBRARY/neiss.html (accessed 10 May 2009).
    1. Chalmers DJ, Hume PA, Wilson BD. Trampolines in New Zealand: A decade of injuries. Br J Sports Med 1994;28:234–8 - PMC - PubMed
    1. American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Injury and Poison Prevention and Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness Trampolines at home, school, and recreational centers. Pediatrics 1999;103:1053–6 - PubMed