Injuries affecting men in Australia: A closer look

Contact with objects (or Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces in ICD10 coding) represents injuries caused by harmful contact with a wide range of possible objects, including everyday household objects and industrial equipment, tools and machinery, blunt objects such as sports equipment, or sharp objects like knives or broken glass. 

In 2021-22, nearly 46,600 hospitalisations were caused by contact with inanimate objects, representing almost 1 in 5 injury hospitalisations for adult men (19%). 81 deaths caused by contact with objects were recorded in this same year. No further breakdowns of deaths data were appropriate for reasons such as confidentiality. 

This chapter focusses therefore on injury hospitalisations. 

Notes

1. Includes knives, glass and other sharp objects
2. Includes doors, walls, trees, rocks, and sporting equipment

Overall, the rate of injury caused by contact with objects was highest for men aged between 19 and 24, and decreased with age (Figure 15). The objects responsible for the most injury hospitalisations varied amongst age groups (Figure 15)

• For men under the age of 45, sharp objects caused the most injuries, with a crude rate of 229 per 100,000 in the 19-24 age group, and 158 per 100,000 in the 25-44 age group;
• For men aged 45 and over, tools and machinery caused the most injuries, with crude rates of 150 per 100,000 for men aged 45 to 64, 146 per 100,000 for men aged 65 to 74, and 108 per 100,000 for men aged 75 and over.

Figure 15: Crude rate (per 100,000) of injury hospitalisations caused by contact with objects by age group (left), and by age and type of object (right), Australia, 2021-22

Notes:

1. Rates are crude per 100,000
2. In the analysis by type of object (right), cases with an unknown object type have been excluded. Therefore, the sum of the columns will be lower than the value across all objects (left) 
3. Only includes hospitalisations where the patient age was greater than or equal to 19, and where sex was recorded as male.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD).

Open wounds are the most frequent type of injury

Almost three quarters (72%) of the 46,600 injury hospitalisations caused by contact with objects fell into one of the following three categories: 

Different types of objects caused different types of injuries: 

• Sharp objects such as knives and glass most often caused open wound injuries (47%), as did tools and machinery (41%)
• Blunt objects, on the other hand, predominantly caused fractures (43%).

Over 2,000 amputations were observed in 2021-22, with over 3 in 5 (63%, or almost 1,300 amputations) caused by contact with tools or machinery.

Hands and wrists are the body part most often injured

Approximately 3 in 5 injuries caused by contact with objects (60%) affected the patient’s hand and/or wrist (Figure 16). Legs were the next most common site of injury, with approximately 8% of injuries affecting the foot and ankle, and 8% impacting the rest of the leg (hip included).

Figure 16: Number of injury hospitalisations caused by contact with objects in adult men by body part injured and object type, Australia, 2021-22,

Injuries from contact with objects primarily occur while working

A substantial proportion (38%) of hospitalisations for injuries resulting from a contact with inanimate objects did not specify the activity undertaken at the time of injury. 

Where this activity was recorded, working for income (29% of all injuries caused by contact with objects), followed by other types of work (18%) and sports (6%) were most frequently reported as activity undertaken when injured (Table 2)

Most injuries occur in the home

Records regarding the place where the injury occurred are missing for the majority (57%, or 26,000 cases) of injury hospitalisations caused by contact with objects. Consequently, findings about the place of injury should be interpreted with caution.

Where the place of occurrence was recorded, the home was the most frequently recorded venue, with 10,000 injuries, or 22% of all injuries caused by contact with objects. 

Industrial and construction areas represented the second most commonly named place of occurrence, with 3,560 injuries, or 8% of the total.

Injuries caused by objects are more frequent in remote areas

The rate of injuries caused by contact with objects increased with remoteness ranging from 432 injuries per 100,000 adult men in Major cities, to 728 per 100,000 in Very remote areas (Figure 17).

This is especially pronounced for contact with sharp objects, with a rate of 297 per 100,000 in Very remote areas, more than 2.5 times that in Major cities (114 per 100,000).

Injuries caused by tools and machinery, however, exhibit a different pattern, with a maximum rate of injury observed in Inner regional areas (187 per 100,000).

Figure 17: Number and crude rate (per 100,000) of injury hospitalisations caused by contact with objects in adult men by remoteness area (left), and by remoteness and type of object (right), Australia, 2021-22

Notes:

1. Rates are crude per 100,000
2. Only includes hospitalisations where the patient age was greater than or equal to 19, and where sex was recorded as male.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) and ABS National, state and territory population.