Thermal causes

< causes of Injury

Thermal causes of injury include exposure to smoke, fire and flames as well as contact with hot substances and heat sources, such as hot food and drinks, and household appliances. Burns from bushfires fall in this category.

Children under 5, especially boys, are most at risk of serious thermal injury.

Thermal injuries resulted in:

This represents 1.0% of injury hospitalisations and 1.0% of injury deaths.

This page summarises data on unintentional thermal injuries only. Intentional injuries and deaths are included under Assault and homicide or Self-harm and suicide.

Thermal causes of injury that led to hospitalisation

In 2020–21:

• 3 in 5 hospitalisations due to thermal causes (60%) were from contact with heat and hot substances
• 2 in 5 hospitalisations due to thermal causes (40%) were from exposure to fire, smoke and flames (Table 1).

Notes

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
2. Percentages and rates may not equal total due to rounding.
3. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes (ACCD 2019).

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Data tables B13–14.

Thermal causes of injury that led to death

In 2019–20:

• 74% of deaths due to thermal causes were from exposure to fire, smoke and flames (Table 2).

Notes

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
2. Percentages may not equal total due to rounding.
3. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10 external cause codes (WHO 2011).

Source: AIHW National Mortality Database.

For more detail, see Data tables B19–21.

Seasonal differences

Hospitalisations due to injuries from thermal causes are higher over the colder months.

The interactive display illustrates other seasonal differences in injury hospitalisations.

Figure 1: Seasonal differences in hospitalisations for thermal injuries, 2018–19 to 2020–21

Notes
1. Admission counts have been standardised into two 15-day periods per month.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Trends over time

The age-standardised rate of hospitalisations for thermal injuries in 2020–21 was 0.9% lower than a year earlier.

Over the period from 2011–12 to 2017–18 there was an average annual decrease in hospitalisations from this cause of ­1.4%. There is a break in the time series for hospitalisations between 2016–17 and 2017–18 due to a change in data collection methods (see the technical notes for details).

The average annual increase in rate of deaths from thermal injuries between 2010–11 and 2019–20 was 1.4% (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Thermal injury hospitalisations and deaths, by sex, by year

For more detail, see Data tables C1–3 and F1–4.

Age and sex differences

Rates of hospitalisation and death from thermal injuries differ between males and females, especially for certain age groups.

Of hospitalisations for thermal injury in 2020–21:

• males accounted for 63%
• the age-standardised rates were:
  • 30 per 100,000 males and
  • 18 per 100,000 females
• children aged under 5 had the highest rates (Figure 3)

Of deaths from thermal injuries in 2019–20:

• males accounted for 76%
• the age-standardised rates were:
  • 0.7 per 100,000 males and
  • 0.2 per 100,000 females.

Figure 3: Thermal injury hospitalisations and deaths, by age group and sex

For more detail, see Data tables A1–3 and D1–3.

Severity

There are many ways that the severity, or seriousness, of an injury can be measured. Some of the ways to measure the severity of hospitalised injuries are:

• number of days in hospital
• time in an intensive care unit (ICU)
• time on a ventilator
• in-hospital deaths.

The average number of days in hospital for thermal injuries was higher than the average for all injuries, and the percentages of thermal cases that included time in an ICU and/or involved continuous ventilatory support were higher than for all injuries. The rate of in-hospital death was lower than the average.

Note: Average number of days in hospital (length of stay) includes hospitalisations that are transfers from 1 hospital to another or transfers from 1 admitted care type to another within the same hospital, except where care involves rehabilitation procedures.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Data tables A13–15.

Body part injured

In 2020–21, the wrist and hand, and the leg and hip were the body parts most often identified as the main site of injury in hospitalisations for thermal injuries (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Hospitalisations for thermal injuries, by main body part injured, 2020–21

Hover over a body part for more information:

Notes

1. Main body part refers to the principal reason for hospitalisation.
2. ‘Trunk’ includes thorax, abdomen, lower back, lumbar spine & pelvis.
3. Number and percentage of injuries classified as Other, multiple, and incompletely specified body regions and Injuries not described in terms of body region not shown—see Data table A11.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

In 2020–21, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

• there were 585 hospitalisations for thermal injury (Table 4)
• males were 1.6 times as likely as females to be hospitalised due to thermal causes (age-standardised)
• thermal injury hospitalisation rates were highest in the 0–4 age group (Figure 5).

There were 11 deaths of Indigenous Australians from thermal injuries in 2019–20.

Note: Rates are crude per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

In 2020–21, Indigenous Australians were 2.8 times as likely as non-Indigenous Australians to be hospitalised due to a thermal injury (Table 4). Deaths are not compared here due to the small number of cases.

Notes

1. Rates are age-standardised to the 2001 Australian population (per 100,000).
2. ‘Non-Indigenous Australians’ excludes cases where Indigenous status is missing or not stated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

The age-specific rate of injury hospitalisations due to thermal causes was highest among the age group for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Hospitalisations for thermal injuries, by Indigenous status, age group and sex, 2020–21

For more detail, see Data tables A4–A6 and D4–D8.

Remoteness

In 2020–21, people living in Very remote areas were 4.8 times as likely as people living in Major cities to be hospitalised for a thermal injury (Table 5).

Deaths data are not compared here because of small numbers.

Note: Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

In 2020–21, when comparing remoteness areas, the rate of hospitalisation for thermal injuries was highest for children aged 0–4 living in Very remote areas (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Hospitalisations for thermal injuries, by remoteness, by age group and sex, 2020–21

For more detail, see Data tables A7–A9 and D9–D10.

For information on how statistics are calculated by remoteness, see the technical notes.

Data details

Technical notes: how the data were calculated

Data tables: download the full tables

Glossary

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