A study on the effect of sports on elderly traffic injury prevention.

J Safety Res

Graduate School of Sience and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama 338-8570, Japan. Electronic address:

Published: June 2022

AI Article Synopsis

  • The increasing percentage of elderly fatalities in traffic crashes in Japan has raised concerns, as these fatalities have exceeded 50% since 2010, largely due to declining physical abilities among older adults.
  • This study aimed to identify effective exercise elements that can help maintain physical functions in the elderly, potentially reducing their risk of being involved in traffic accidents and improving their response in near-miss situations.
  • Results suggest that regular exercise significantly enhances physical fitness and awareness when crossing streets, indicating that engaging in sports can help prevent traffic accidents and injuries among elderly individuals.

Article Abstract

Introduction: In recent years, the percentage of elderly fatalities in traffic crashes in Japan has been increasing and has exceeded 50% since 2010. The fatality rate is high for the elderly due to the deterioration of physical functions.

Method: The purpose of this study was to reduce the high fatality rate of elderly people at the time of the crash and to find out the effective exercise elements for maintaining physical functions, and to deter traffic crashes and reduce the fatality rate of the elderly people.

Results: The effect of exercise on improving and maintaining physical fitness was remarkable, and even when encountering a near miss injuries or crashes, the percentage of the group that was able to respond in some way to a near miss or crashes was higher in the group that regularly exercised. The elderly who do not exercise tend to take longer to start crossing and tend to check both sides of the road less often while crossing. In addition, when they were about to encounter a car, they tended to continue walking, which tended to lead to dangerous crossing.

Conclusion: As a result of the questionnaire survey, the possibility of preventing traffic crashes by participating in sports was confirmed. As a result of running experiments using a crossing simulator, it was found that elderly people who do not exercise have a gap between their usual awareness of crossing and their actual behavior.

Practical Implications: Through the discovering elements of exercise that are useful in reducing injuries will make it possible to provide accurate guidance and training to elderly people with reduced physical functions, and it is expected that pedestrians will be able to avoid traffic injuries with their own abilities.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2022.01.006DOI Listing

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