Google Street View has quickly turn into a tool for individuals who wish to get a feel for a community, have a look at real estate – and sometimes prank a tech giant when his mapping automobile drives by. However, it also has the potential to stop falls and injuries in New Zealand urban environments.
Falls are a number one reason for injury and accidental death amongst older adults, but identifying the situation of outside hazards is laborious and time-consuming.
in ours recent researchwe now have created a tool using Google Street View to audit the places where people walk.
The aim of our recent tool – Fall-SAFE – is to discover hazards in New Zealand’s built environment and create a database for local authorities and community groups to grasp where and why an older person may fall.
Costly risk
Annually, one in three people over 65 years of age suffer injuries from falls. This number increases to 1 to 2 for people over 80 years of age.
Only in 2023 ACC received 236,985 recent claims within the case of falls in people over 60 years of age. Many of those falls resulted in serious injuries equivalent to broken hips, hospitalization, and even death.
It’s not only older people who find themselves at risk of falling – although they’re by far the most important group. Last yr, ACC paid out NZ$2.15 billion to cover falls claims.
The effects of falls go further than simply medical recovery. Older individuals who have fallen outdoors or who’re afraid of falling on account of the perceived risk could also be less willing to go for walks. Then they lose physical, mental and social advantages this sort of activity.
Smith Collection/Getty Images
Environmental assessment
Using data from emergency services Hato Hone St Johnwe identified 2,117 falls between July 2016 and June 2018 in urban areas involving adults aged 65 years and older. Wellington was excluded because town uses a distinct ambulance service.
Auditors then used Google Street View to evaluate the locations of those falls and discover hazards within the built environment which will have contributed to them. These hazards included trip hazards, uneven footpaths, obstacles (equivalent to overgrown bushes), and slopes.
In their assessment, the auditors used the “drop-and-spin” method, during which they conducted a 360° audit of the autumn site. Google Maps photos were arranged to be as near the date of the accident as possible.
Drop-and-spin virtual audits are faster than physical audits, but just as reliable. Moreover, virtual drop-and-spin audits enable the assessment of enormous geographic areas that will be difficult to examine in person.
Understanding the streets of New Zealand
After examining various fall locations, we gained a greater understanding of where falls occurred and what hazards can have contributed to them.
Half of all falls occurred in residential locations (49.1%) and 1 / 4 occurred in industrial locations (22.4%). An extra 16.2% of falls occurred in ‘other’ locations (equivalent to rural or industrial areas).
In over 60% of fall sites, at the very least one trip hazard was on account of poorly maintained sidewalks. The most typical obstacles were manholes, plumbing covers or grates (71.5%), poles (65.4%), utility boxes (46.6%), and plant overhangs (39.5%). Other obstacles, equivalent to bus shelters, chairs and tables, and drains, were recorded in 64.5% of locations.
Three-quarters of falls occurred in places with flat or gentle slopes (76.3%). Only 15.5% of falls occurred on a moderate slope, while 8.2% occurred on a steep slope.
The majority (95.6%) of the autumn sites had normal curb height (ten centimeters). In several locations there have been no curbs (2.3%) or stormwater drainage (2%). In most autumn locations, streetlights were present either on one side of the road (including partial or only a few locations) (54%), or on each side (44%). In 0.9% of the facilities there have been no street lamps visible.
Of all of the locations we assessed, just below 6% had no obvious risk. This seems to point that external aspects were a contributing consider the overwhelming majority of falls – although without information from the one that fell, it’s difficult to say for sure.
Cheaper and faster option
The current approach to assessing the security of urban environments – sending people to physically inspect a pedestrian path to discover problems – may be time-consuming and expensive.
And there may be simply no money for this work. A number of suggestions, including: Hamilton AND Mastertonannounced significant cuts to New Zealand Transport Agency funding for maintaining and repairing footpaths and cycle paths.
Another concern is that assessors may not fully understand the experiences of older people in these locations. A risk to someone 65+ may not seem to be a risk to someone of their 30s or 40s.
Understanding the aspects that contribute to falls in older adults – equivalent to obstacles and trip hazards – allows city planners to deal with problems within the built environment.
Our free audit tool enables councils and support groups to have a look at their environments to grasp risks. In our study, we applied this method to places where we all know people have fallen, but this tool may be used to evaluate risk in any environment.
Investing effort and time now to deal with your fall risk early could prevent money – and lives – down the road.