Hospitalisations and emergency department presentations for injury

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In 2020–21, injuries amongst humanitarian entrants resulted in:

  • 11,275 ED presentations

    53.6 presentations per 1,000 population

  • 3,521 hospitalisations

    16.8 hospitalisations per 1,000 population 

Injury diagnoses

An injury is identified by having a primary diagnosis code in the ICD-10-AM chapter 19 Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external cause. These analyses focus on the first instance of injury, see Technical notes for further details. These injuries were grouped into subchapters (Table 3).

Table 3: Counts of the hospitalisations and ED presentations among humanitarian entrants, by injury subchapter, 2020–21
ICD-10-AM subchapterPrincipal diagnosisHospitalisationsED presentations

S00–S19

Injuries to head & neck

773

1,806

S20–S39

Injuries to thorax, abdomen, back, spine & pelvis

425

512

S40–S99

Injuries to upper and lower limbs

1,444

5,748

T00–T19

Injuries to multi- or unspecified region; foreign body effects

51

1,450

T20–T35

Burns and frostbite

61

303

T36–T65

Poisoning and toxic effects

220

524

T66–T79

Other and unspecified effects of external causes

79

n.p.

T80–T88

Complications of medical and surgical care

468

492

Source: Refugee health linked data set

Notes:

  1. Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database (NHMD) and AIHW National Non-admitted Patient Emergency Department Care (NNAPEDC) Database.
  2. This does not include hospitalisations which occurred in WA or NT or for people living in WA or NT.
  3. Small counts for burns and frost bite mean these figures cannot be further disaggregated.

In 2020–21, injuries to upper and lower limbs were the leading cause of hospitalisations and ED presentations, among humanitarian entrants and other permanent migrants. Further data are provided in Data tables.

Main causes of injury-related hospitalisations

The two leading causes of injury-related hospitalisation in 2020–21 for both humanitarian entrants and other permanent migrants were falls (22%, 792 cases and 25%, 6,355 cases, respectively) and contact with objects (20%, 702 cases and 22%, 5,653 cases, respectively). 

The rate of injury-related hospitalisations that were a result of assaults in 2020–21 was 6.6 times higher in humanitarian entrants (1.9 per 1,000 people, 409 cases) compared with other permanent migrants (0.3 per 1,000 people, 819 cases). This compares with the published rate of injury hospitalisations due to assault in the general Australian population in 2020–21 of 0.9 per 1,000 people (22,981 cases) (AIHW 2024). Additional detail on the demographics and locations of assault related injury hospitalisations is beyond the scope of these analyses and further investigations in this area would be valuable; see Data gaps, limitations and opportunities for further information.

Figure 8. Crude rates (per 100,000) of hospitalisations for injuries among humanitarian entrants and other permanent migrants, by cause of injury, 2020–21

Bar chart of hospitalisations for injury in humanitarian entrants and other permanent migrants by injury cause. Falls was the leading cause for both cohorts. The rate of hospitalisations for injury due to assault was much higher in humanitarian entrants than other permanent migrants.


Source: Refugee health linked data set

Notes:

  1. This does not include hospitalisations which occurred in WA or NT or for people living in WA or NT.
  2. Injury cause is determined by the first recorded external cause code in the hospitalisation record.

External cause data are not available for emergency department presentations. For more detail, see Technical notes.

Activity while injured

Of the total number of hospitalisations for injury among humanitarian entrants, those injuries occurred while working in 7.4% of cases (10.7 per 10,000 people). This compares with 9.0% of hospitalisations for injury (7.0 per 10,000 people) among other permanent migrants. In 2021, there were lower employment rates in humanitarian entrants, with 43% employed, compared to other permanent migrants where 81% of skilled migrants and 62% of family migrants were employed (ABS 2023). This may contribute to the difference in hospitalisations due to injuries which occur at work.

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