Risky behavior during stair descent for young adults: Differences in men versus women (Research about sex differences you never knew you needed to know)

[IwantToRetire]

Previous research has demonstrated that average injury rate of stair-related falls has a trimodal distribution with a peak for young adults in their 20’s, with women in their 20’s sustaining about 80% more injuries than men of the same age.

The purpose of this study was to quantify young adult behaviors during staircase descent, with the goal of identifying behaviors that increase fall risk on stairs, and to determine if young women are more likely to demonstrate these risky behaviors. Young adults engaged in behaviors that may increase fall risk, including not using the handrail, carrying items, using electronic devices, holding a conversation, and wearing footwear that increases fall risk.

Women demonstrated several behaviors that increase their fall risk relative to men: less likely to use the handrail, more likely to be holding something in their hands, more likely to be engaged in conversation, more likely to wear sandals and heels, and they demonstrated a higher number of co-occurring risky behaviors.

However, women also engaged in behaviors that may be protective of fall risk: less likely to skip steps and more likely to look at the stair tread during transition steps.

Overall, the observed sex-related differences are strengthened by the inclusion of both short and long staircases since similar sex-related effects were observed on both staircases.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0288438

The published article is quite long and so has much more information, but I still couldn't work out why the research had happened.

I did break my leg going falling down the stairs in my mid 20s so there you go!

I imagine the research was funded by all the women who hopefully put things on the stairs only to watch the rest of the family galloping past said items and then carrying them all up themselves, often falling in the process.

more likely to be holding something in their hands

Because men have pockets and every other fucker walks past the stuff on the stairs.

Sorry mum, you were right.

less likely to use the handrail, more likely to be holding something in their hands, more likely to be engaged in conversation, more likely to wear sandals and heels,

as said above, so busy carrying everyone else's stuff up and down stairs, having to answers irritating questions, whilst being required to wear suitably feminine footwear which are a danger in themselves, let alone on stairs!

Funnily enough I remember one of those tv documentaries about old houses and they talked about how in the 19th century house maids were recorded to have serious injuries from falling down stairs.

But it turned out that at that time there was no guidelines on how deep steps should be or how high each step. And with many house maids living in attics but not being thought important stair up to the attics were too narrow, had very small step width but each step was quite high above each other. So I suppose homeowners / employers just dismissed these accidents as clumsy uneducated women, not that they had put them in a position of danger everyday.

Funny you mention this because I was watching a video about this only a few days ago.
Lack of light/just candlelight and long skirts and not actually seeing the stairs also contributed.

Lack of light/just candlelight and long skirts and not actually seeing the stairs also contributed.

All I can hear is my Navy family and friends shouting THREE POINTS OF CONTACT at me. We have very steep stairs.

🤣 brilliant!!

Well, that's got me suitably annoyed for the day.

And now you point out the maid thing, it all makes total sense - and of course even on other stairs, the maids would be carrying things, and in a long skirt - everything stacked against them!

Little bits of daily patriarchal oppression with serious consequences.

... but I still couldn't work out why the research had happened.

I would imagine someone saw the statistic in accident compilation stats and wondered why. Then a researcher got some funding for analysis. It's quite interesting really.

I live in a Victorian house and some of the houses around here have attic rooms (original) or loft conversions. It’s not uncommon for them to have narrower treads and higher risers. It’s a way of getting loft access in without compromising the landing.

We had knackered stair carpet when we bought this house. It came away from the stairs as I was carrying baby DS2 downstairs in my arms and I slipped. Luckily I fell backwards onto my backside and was able to free an arm to grab the handrail. It still makes me shudder when I think about it.

I still couldn't work out why the research had happened

But the abstract you quoted says why - young women are much more likely to be injured on stairs than young men, so they wanted to investigate why. This could then be potentially used for preventative purposes. Isn't that a good thing?

So men and women demonstrate risky behaviours- men skip steps and don't look, women wear inadequate shoes and don't hold on due to carrying things.

There's no mention of whether women are more likely to be injured from falls where men escape uninjured from a similar fall.

But whichever, maybe all the ROGD girls are just trying to avoid falling on the stairs.

Isn't this actually about gender roles rather than sex differences.

Women are socialised/conditioned by the patriarchy to wear high heels, carry handbags, be the primary child carer, be the main housekeeper, etc.

There may also be sex differences to factor in to why women are more likely to be injured on stairs but they aren't covered in the abstract. Things like smaller feet, altered centre of gravity due to pregnancy, large boobs meaning you can't see your feet, osteoporosis, smaller stature etc.

I assume the "things" being carried by women in their early 20s are often babies. Women will get more seriously injured in those cases because they will deliberately fall to protect the baby instead of themself.

Yep, I fell downstairs recently and ruptured my ankle. I was carrying a massive pile of everybody else's dirty clothes for the wash.

That might be a good theory if this was a study about home accidents... but it took place in a university building where usually there aren't that many babies! The main factor seemed to be women were more likely to be carrying stuff (not wearing a backpack) and walking with a friend or talking on the phone, both of which prevented them grabbing a handrail.

I read somewhere that when women fall down the stairs they prioritise the safety of the object they are holding, even if that thing is unimportant and the theory was that all women, regardless of whether they have children, have an instinct to act as though it is an infant when falling and will jeaopordise their entire safety to cocoon it.

It could be bollocks, I certainly couldn't reference it.

I’m going to stop telling my daughter off for sliding down the bannister- she may be being more sensible than me! 😂

Heels are such a stupid invention. and I say that as someone who bought and wore a lot of pairs in my twenties!

I stopped wearing them when I watched our then leadership team at work walking down the stairs and the women were all wearing six inch heels and teetering slowly down the stairs and the men were striding past in flats. I've worn flats to work ever since.(and am now part of the leadership team)

Men rarely wear anything other than sensible shoes, women even if not wearing heels are far more likely to wear something like sliders /wedges/flip flops

Having said that,. I wouldn't have thought that was much of a thing at university perhaps mainly based on my experience of walking a fair distance to lectures so needing to be in trainers.

I nearly fell down the stairs the other day. Fully pregnant. Carrying the laundry basket of dirty clothes. Balance was off.

I fell down the stairs while holding DS2 because I was rushing after DS2 had a nappy explosion right at school pickup time for DS1. DS2 was ok, mothering instincts took over and I fell into my back and held him on top of me as I slid down the stairs. Ripped most of my tendons and ligaments in my ankle. DS1 ended up being picked up very late!

My ex would NEVER have been in that position.

Firstly he would just have gone in late and wouldn't have rushed. Secondly the chances of him being responsible for both DSs at the same time at school pick up time was vanishingly rare.

Did, that, but was about 30. I was wearing knackered old slippers ('they'll do, the kids' shoes matter more, we need to save for the extension...'), lost my footing on very steep stairs while carrying a baby, with a selflessness I never knew I had held the baby really protectively, slid on my arse and back all the way down. Amazingly I escaped with nothing more than bruises, and the baby was fine and giggling.

Combo of undervaluing myself and being the one at home with the DC

This is interesting, early in the thread I thought of my friend who fell down the stairs while pregnant, and then read on to see lots of similar examples.

Has anyone else paid attention to how many couples you see out and about where the woman is carrying all the heavy stuff and the man is strolling along unencumbered? If there’s a baby to be carried the mother will be carrying it, if there’s a backpack full of baby stuff to be carried the woman will be carrying it. I look at all these taller, stronger, not-dealing-with-the-after-effects-of-pregnancy husbands and wonder what goes through their minds when they are parading about like that, hands in pockets with the mother of their children looking like a little packhorse alongside them.

I am feeling really sad about those poor maids now. Coming down steep attic stairs, holding a candle because they had to get up when it was still dark, and probably hindered by tiredness from the hard physical labour of all the previous days.

DH was genuinely baffled after DC1 was born why I was no longer bringing my empty tea mug downstairs. It didn't seem to occur to him that I was carrying a baby each time I went up & down the stairs and could only use the stairs gingerly anyway due to birth related injuries.