ABSTRACT
Older people falling on stairs in the home is a serious problem, resulting in up to 1000 deaths and 57,000 hospital A&E attendances each year (DTI, 2000). In 22,000 of these incidents, casualties suffer a fracture, concussion, or otherwise require admission to hospital for more than a day. The cost to the health services and wider community of caring for these patients is substantial. Also, falls have serious psychological and social consequences for the individual, affecting mobility, confidence and quality of life. Although the personal and environmental factors involved in falls on stairs are well known, the influence of behaviour has received much less attention from researchers (Connell and Wolf, 1997). The aim of this investigation was to improve understanding of how older people keep and use their stairs, considering the implications for stair safety.
