NZ study finds that more than a third of injuries are preventable with some specific Home Modification Interventions

Published 16th March 2016

The HIPI study used a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of around 600 households in Taranaki. NZ

The pilot study found strong associations between home injury hazards and injuries actually occurring in people's homes, indicated that fixing fall hazards would reduce injury rates. Following the pilot, a study of home injury hazards and home injury was conducted for the NZ Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). In the process of carrying out this study, all homes were fully assessed for injury hazards using the NZ standardised Healthy Housing Index.

The HIPI study was a a cluster-randomised controlled trial that tested the safety benefits of home modifications, including handrails for outside steps and internal stairs, grab rails for bathrooms, outside lighting, edging for outside steps, and slip-resistant surfacing for outside areas such as decks and porches found that injuries specific to the home-modification intervention were cut by 39% per year exposed 

Keall, M. D., N. Pierse, P. Howden-Chapman, C. Cunningham, M. Cunningham, J. Guria and M. G. Baker (2015). “Home modifications to reduce injuries from falls in the Home Injury Prevention Intervention (HIPI) study: a cluster-randomised controlled trial.” The Lancet 385: 231–238  Read the Paper

For more information, contact Project Manager, Dr Michael Keall.

Read about the the Healthy Housing Index.
Read about the HHI pilot study.
Read about the Taranaki home injury hazards study (PDF).
Read about the results of the HIPI study (PDF)