Accidents Caused by Gardening - Trivial or Serious? Gardening is a popular leisure activity in Switzerland. Approximately 1 million non-occupational accidents are recorded each year; , of these occur at home or in pursuit of a hobby, including approx. The aim of this study is to investigate gardening-related accidents. The data for this study were generated from the database of the management system of Berne University Hospital, Switzerland, and retrospectively analyzed.
Patients were enrolled who were at least 16 years old - since younger patients in Switzerland are normally treated in specialised Emergency Departments for Paediatrics. The study was restricted to patients who suffered an accident that resulted in physical impairment while working in their own garden. The data were then analysed based on age, sex, triage category, mechanism, causing object, lesion site, diagnoses, severity of injury monotraumatic or combined with more than one region or polytrauma , in-patient or out-patient treatment.
Gardening-related accidents were mainly suffered by middle aged adults years. Men were more often affected than women. At consultation, the injury was mostly monotraumatic and could be treated in an out-patient setting. Patients mainly complained of eye injuries and lacerations.
The exposed areas of the eyes, fingers and the head or face were the most affected body regions. Falls and stumbling often led to accidents. Injuries were mainly caused by organic material or by the improper use of gardening tools. The data analysis showed that many injuries could have been avoided by simple preventive measures. Publisher: Zusammenfassung. Gartenarbeit ist eine beliebte Freizeitaktivität in der Schweiz. Pro Jahr werden ungefähr eine Million Nichtberufsunfälle registriert, davon ereignen sich etwa zu Hause oder während der Ausübung eines Hobbies, einschliesslich 16 Unfällen bei der Gartenarbeit.
Ziel dieser retrospektiven Analyse ist die Untersuchung von Gartenarbeitsunfällen. Die Daten wurden aus der elektronischen Datenbank des Universitären Notfallzentrums des Inselspitals Bern gesammelt und retrospektiv ausgewertet.
