The growing incidence of product-related injuries among older Australians highlights the need for targeted injury prevention. Age-related factors and modifiable contributors, including product design and home environments, play a key role—yet the lack of robust surveillance data limits informed policy and intervention. 

The SafeAge Project is a three-year research initiative funded by the Australian Research Council, aimed at generating contemporary knowledge to better understand how consumer products contribute to injuries and deaths among older people. Drawing on diverse data sources—including international regulatory responses, Queensland health records, consumer complaints, and online product reviews—the project seeks to identify leading injury causes and contributing factors. 

This month, the collaborative academic research team, led by Kirsten Vallmuur, and project managed by Catherine Niven, convened to develop a blueprint for an open-access product safety dashboard. This tool will help track trends and patterns in product-related injuries among seniors. In addition, the project will produce a series of injury reports to support evidence-based prevention strategies and improve the safety of products used in residential settings. 

The project is expected to deliver significant benefits: 

• For older individuals and caregivers: to support informed purchasing and safer product use. 

• For industry: to guide the development of safer product designs. 

• For government: to inform ageing-in-place strategies and regulatory measures, such as mandatory safety standards and warnings. 

The SafeAge Advisory Committee also met this month to provide strategic advice on the direction of the project. It comprises representatives from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Queensland Office of Fair Trading, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Occupational Therapy Australia, the Rehabilitation, Ageing and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre at Monash University, CHOICE, the Consumers Federation of Australia, and the Council on the Ageing (COTA) Queensland. Their input helps shape research outputs that are practical, targeted, and capable of informing effective injury prevention strategies for older Australians. 

 Stay tuned for updates on our progress! 

SafeAge Research Team – Prof Kirsten Vallmuur JTI/AusHSI (QUT), Prof Ioni Lewis CARRS-Q (QUT), Prof Laurie Buys ACU, A/Prof Kelly Purser ACHLR (QUT), A/Prof Alan Abrahams Virginia Tech USA, Dr Helen Badge ACU and Dr Catherine Niven AusHSI (QUT)

The SafeAge group workshop on 10 July.