Body part injured

The head and neck were the most common body parts injured, with almost 9,800 cases (33%). To some extent this may reflect the inherently serious nature of head and neck injuries. Injuries to the trunk (thorax, abdomen, lower back, lumbar, spine and pelvis) (3,000 or 9.8%) and hip and lower limb (2,700 or 9.1%), and shoulder and upper limb (2,700 or 9.0%) were the next most common body parts injured (Figure 10).

For all injuries described by body location, males had higher crude rates than females. Some notable differences between the sexes include:

  • males were 1.9 times as likely to sustain a head and neck alcohol-related injury hospitalisation as females (51 per 100,000 and 26 per 100,000, respectively)
  • males were 2.3 times as likely to sustain an alcohol-related injury hospitalisation for the trunk (thorax, abdomen, lower back, lumbar, spine and pelvis) as females (16 per 100,000 and 7.1 per 100,000, respectively).

Figure 10: Alcohol-related injury hospitalisations by principal body part injured, 2019–20

Notes:

1. Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

2. Body part refers to the principal reason for hospitalisation. Number and percentage of injuries classified as Other, multiple and incompletely specified body regions  or Injuries not described in terms of body region (9,969 cases, 33%) not shown.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detailed data, see Data tables A26–27.