Type of injury

For ED presentations in 2022–23, where the type of injury was recorded:

  • New

    97,000 5–14-year-olds presented with fractures (3,000 per 100,000), the highest number and rate for any age group by type of injury.

  • New

    The most frequent presentations were for fractures (about 412,000 presentations) and open wounds (about 320,000 presentations).

Please see supplementary data table ED2 for more information.

For hospitalisations in 2022–23:

  • Across all ages, the top 3 types of injuries were:

    • fractures (about 817 per 100,000 persons or 215,000 cases)
    • open wounds (around 346 per 100,000)
    • soft tissue injuries (around 202 per 100,000)

  • Injury hospitalisations were most likely to be for fractures in 65+ year olds, at a crude rate of about 2,000 per 100,000 people (86,500 cases)

Please see supplementary data table H4 for more information.

Looking at the type of injury and the body parts that are injured, the data for 2022–23 shows that fractures are the most common type of injury for several different body parts (Figure 18), with over 220 per 100,000 fractures in shoulders or upper limbs, followed by hip or lower limb fractures with just over 190 per 100,000. Open wounds are the second-highest recorded type of injury overall, affecting the wrist (around 120 per 100,000) and the head or neck (around 100 per 100,000).

Figure 18: Age-standardised rates of injury hospitalisations by body parts and type of injury, Australia, 2022–23

Figure 18 shows a heatmap of body parts and type of injuries with ASR. Fractures were the main type of injury across most body parts.

Notes:

  1. Matrix of age-standardised rates of body parts injured by type of injury.
  2. Age-standardised rates per 100,000 population.
  3. Rates under 1 are omitted.
  4. Body part injured: Trunk includes thorax, abdomen, lower back, lumbar spine & pelvis), Shoulder and upper limb excludes hand and wrist, Other includes multiple and incompletely specified body regions, Not specified includes injuries not described in terms of body location, Hip and lower limb excludes ankle and foot.
  5. Type of injury: Foreign object through orifice, Other includes specified and/or multiple injuries.

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

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