Injuries affecting men in Australia: A closer look

Rates of injury hospitalisation are highest among men aged 75 and over

In 2021–22 there were almost 49,000 injury hospitalisations (5,600 per 100,000 men) among men aged 75+. This was the highest rate of any age group among men. The second highest injury rate was less than half that value, with 2,700 hospitalisations per 100,000 among men aged 19 to 24 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Number and crude rate (per 100,000) of injury hospitalisations for adult men by age group, Australia, 2021–22

Notes:

1. Numbers are represented by the columns and rates by the line graph.
2. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
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) and ABS National, state and territory population.

Young adult men aged 19 to 24, exhibit the highest rate of injury ED presentation

In contrast with injury hospitalisations, ED injury presentations were most frequent in younger men (Figure 2).

In 2021–22:

• there were 671,000 ED presentations by men,
• around 106,000 were for men aged 19 to 24 (over 10,600 presentations per 100,000 men in that age group),
• men aged 75 and over had the second highest ED presentation rate (over 7,800 per 100,000).

Figure 2: Number and crude rate (per 100,000) of injury ED presentations for adult men by age group, Australia, 2021–22

Notes:

1. Numbers are represented by the columns and rates by the line graph.
2. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
3. Only includes ED presentations where the patient age was greater than or equal to 19, and where sex was recorded as male.

Sources: AIHW National Non-admitted Patient Emergency Department Care database (NAPEDC) and ABS National, state and territory population.

Injury rates increase with remoteness, especially for younger men

The rate of injury hospitalisation increased with remoteness in 2021–22 (Table 1). Men were almost twice as likely to be hospitalised for an injury in Very remote areas (with an age-standardised rate of 4,400 per 100,000) compared to those in Major cities (2,200 per 100,000).

Notes:

1. 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.

In most areas, the pattern of injury hospitalisations by age group remains similar to that observed nationally (Figure 3), with the highest hospitalisation rates observed for men aged 75 and over. Only in Very remote areas is a different pattern observed, where adult men aged 19 to 24 present the highest rate of hospitalisation (Figure 3).

The rate of injury hospitalisations increases with remoteness for all age groups, except for men aged 75 and over, for whom the injury rate is highest in Major cities (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Crude rate (per 100,000) of injury hospitalisations for adult men by remoteness and age group, Australia, 2021–22 

Notes:

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
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.

First Nations men have higher rates of injury hospitalisations and deaths

The AIHW uses ‘First Nations men to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in this report. In 2021-22, there were close to 12,700 injury hospitalisations in First Nations men. About half of these were for First Nations men aged 25 to 44, the age group with the highest rate of injury hospitalisations (over 5,300 injuries per 100,000 men) (Figure 4). In contrast with the pattern observed for all Australians (shown in Figure 1), injury hospitalisation rates were lowest for First Nations men aged 65 and over, with a rate of 3,900 injuries per 100,000.

Figure 4: Number and crude rate (per 100,000) of injury hospitalisations among First Nations adult men, Australia, 2021-22. 

Notes:

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
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.

The age-standardised rate of injury hospitalisations for First Nations men was more than twice the rate of non-Indigenous men (4,760 and 2,280 per 100,000 respectively). This gap has remained consistent over the last decade (Figure 5)

Figure 5: Age-standardised rates (per 100,000) of injury hospitalisations in adult men in 2021–22, for First Nations and non-Indigenous men.

Notes:

1. Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.
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.