SSHeW study protocol: does slip resistant footwear reduce slips among healthcare workers? A randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Slips, trips and falls are common causes of injuries in the workplace. It is estimated that in Great Britain, nearly 1 million days are taken off work due to these injuries. There is some evidence to suggest this accident burden could be reduced by the use of slip resistant footwear. This protocol describes a multicentre trial investigating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of slip resistant footwear to prevent slips in National Health Service (NHS) staff working in clinical, general or catering environments.
Methods and Analysis: A two-arm, randomised controlled trial conducted within England, with 4400 NHS staff, aged 18 years and above, who adhere to a dress code policy and work in a clinical, catering or general hospital environment. Participants will be randomised 1:1 to the intervention or waiting list control group. The intervention group will be offered a pair of 5-star GRIP rated slip resistant footwear. The control group will be offered the footwear at the end of the trial. The primary outcome is the incidence rate of self-reported slips in the workplace over a 14-week period, as reported via weekly text messages. Secondary outcomes include: time to first slip/fall, proportion of participants who slip and fall over 14 weeks and incidence rate of falls resulting from and not resulting from a slip in the workplace over 14 weeks. An economic evaluation will assess cost-effectiveness, in terms of cost per quality-adjusted life year gained. A nested qualitative study will explore the acceptability of the footwear and compliance.
Ethics and Dissemination: This protocol received a favourable ethical opinion from the University of York, Department of Health Sciences Research Governance Committee. The trial results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and at conferences. A summary of the findings will be made available to participants.
Trial Registration Number: ISRCTN33051393; Pre results.
Competing Interests: Competing interests: CH declares membership of the HTA Commissioning Board. The NIHR grant application included some salary costs for SC, CF, GF, CH, ML, MZ, HI-S, LG, RC-B and DT. The HSE grant included some salary costs for ML, GF and MZ. GF, MZ and ML declare that the HSE run the GRIP rating scheme, which was used to identify the footwear/manufacture to be used in the trial and Shoes for Crews paid the HSE for testing of footwear under the Grip rating scheme.
(© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2018. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)