Investigating the General Safety of Playground Equipment and its Compliance With National Standards

Background: Accidents caused by children’s play equipment are a severe health threat to them. Implementing the requirements of the safety standards is necessary to ensure the safety of such equipment. The current study aimed to determine the general safety of playground equipment in general parks in Gonabad City, Iran. We also compared the level of the general safety of this equipment with national standards.  Methods: This cross-sectional and analytical study was conducted in all the parks of Gonabad City during the autumn and winter of 2017. The required information on the playgrounds in the public parks of this city was collected by a checklist. The checklist was designed based on the general safety of playgrounds standards (national standard 1-6436) in 124 items.  Results: On average, 9.55 of standard requirements were not implemented in examined parks. Moreover, none of the studied parks fully complied with current standards. We observed fractures, cracks, or deformation in equipment, rough surfaces with the risk of injury, hazardous conditions due to inappropriate design that could harm children, as well as the lack of middle aggressors. These were non-compliant components observed at least 70% of the studied parks.  Conclusion: Removing points with fracture and defective points, and improving the level of children’s playground is essential. The obtained data also emphasized the need for periodic safety audits and the improvement of the safety level of children’s playground equipment.