Injuries in children and adolescents 2021–22

Activity codes in hospital data describe what the person was doing at the time of injury, for example sport or employment. Incomplete activity data mean that these findings should be interpreted with caution. Just under half of all injury hospitalisations among children and adolescents had an activity specified, with the leading ones being:

• sport, exercise or recreational activities (18,700, 21%)
• leisure activity, not elsewhere classified (12,100, 14%).

Children aged between 0 – 4 made up over half of hospitalisations where the activity was While resting, sleeping, eating or engaging in other vital activities (56%), while 10–18-year-olds make up the majority of sports and leisure activities (61%).

The completeness of activity data generally increased with age. 22% of injury hospitalisations for children aged under one had a specified activity, while for 13–15-year-olds, this rose to 63%. 

Sports and recreation activity related to 1 in 5 injury hospitalisations

Adolescents tend to have the highest rates of sports injury hospitalisations (AIHW 2023e), however they also have the highest rates of sports participation (ASC 2023). In 2021–22, there were 18,700 injury hospitalisations among children and adolescents that involved sport, exercise or recreational activities (21%). Over 1 in 3 injury hospitalisations for children aged 10–12 and 13–15 involved sports. The sports and recreations activities with the highest number of hospitalisations were:

The high number of hospitalisations for cycling (including both as a sport and means of transport/recreation) may be reflective of the high rates of participation. Cycling caused the highest number of hospitalisations for all age groups apart from adolescents aged 16–18, where Australian Rules Football (14%), Rugby codes (13%), and Soccer (9%) were the leading sports.

Fractures were the most common type of injury among sports and recreation injuries (57%). For the 3 sports and recreation activities above, fractures made up the majority of injuries, with roller sports notably having the highest proportion of any sport (71%). For more information, see supplementary data tables A21-A23.

Sport by participation

AusPlay^TM collects annual survey data on sports participation across Australia. Data is collected for Australians aged 0–14, and 15 and over, with differing methodologies due to parent involvement in children surveys. AusPlay^TM presents data for participants aged 15–17, and 18–24 with no further age disaggregation available; for this reason, only participation data for children aged 0–14, and 15–17 are presented in this report as rate denominators. Rates between these age groups should not be used for comparison purposes. 

AusPlay^TM participation rates are based on survey data so may be subject to sampling error. Consequently, rates of injury per participant should be treated as estimates. Injury rates likely reflect participation rates to some extent.

Children aged 0–14 had an overall rate of sports injury of 316 per 100,000 participants. The sport with the highest rate of injury for this age group was roller sports (3,700 per 100,000 participants).

For adolescents aged 15–17, the overall rate of sports injury was 653 per 100,000 participants. The sport with the highest rate of injury in this age group was wheeled motor sports (2,200 per 100,000). For more information, see supplementary data table A24.

Child concussions involving sport

37% of hospitalised concussions in children involved sport, compared to 14% for adults. Sport was involved in the majority of concussions hospitalisations for children aged between 10–15, with over 3 in 5 hospitalisations for 13–15 year-olds (62%).

Australian rules football contributed to 18% of sports concussion hospitalisations (235 cases), followed by cycling (17%, 224).