Injury in Australia: contact with objects

Contact with objects resulting in traumatic injury, (also known as ‘Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces’), is the second most common cause of hospitalised injury in Australia (after falls).

This category includes harmful contact with every-day or industrial objects that usually, if used correctly, do not cause injury. Examples include knives, tools, machines and sports equipment. It also includes unintentional injuries caused by guns and non-heat-related injuries caused by explosions. (See Burns and other thermal causes for heat-related injuries.)

In 2017–18, 14% of hospitalised injury cases (74,500 cases) were caused by contact with objects. Males are particularly at risk from this category of injury, with a hospitalisation rate 2.7 times as high as females.

Deaths caused by contact with objects are comparatively rare, with just 89 (0.7% of injury deaths) recorded in 2017–18. Because of this, detailed information about these deaths is limited in this report.

This article summarises key data on accidental contact with objects that resulted in hospitalisation. Intentional injuries involving contact with objects are included under Intentional self-harm and suicide and Assault and homicide.

In 2017–18, harmful contact with objects resulted in:

This report only includes data on injuries that result in hospital admission or death. If a person dies from an injury after being admitted to hospital, both the hospitalisation and the death is included in this report. For more information, see Defining injury hospitalisation cases and injury deaths.

Which types of contact with objects resulted in hospitalisation?

The most common causes of hospitalised injury due to exposure to inanimate mechanical forces fall under the broad categories listed in Table 1.

Notes:

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population, calculated using estimated resident population as at 31 December of the relevant year. 
   Totals may not equal the sum of the rows due to rounding.
2. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (10th edition) external cause codes for hospitalisations (ACCD 2017).

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detailed data, see Data tables B13–14.

Trends over time

Between 2008–09 and 2016–17, there was an annual average increase of 1.0% in hospitalisation rates due to contact with objects. Annual average rate changes are calculated using modelled age-standardised rates (see Technical notes for more details).

Because of changes in data collection methods, hospitalisations data for 2017–18 should not be compared with those of previous years and are not included in Figure 1 (see Technical notes for more details).

Deaths data are not presented because of small numbers.

Figure 1: Hospitalisation cases due to contact with objects, by age group and sex, 2008–09 to 2016–17

For more detailed data, see Data tables C1–4 and E1–4.

How do rates vary by age and sex?

Injury rates due to contact with objects differ for males and females and across age groups (Figure 2).

In 2017–18:

• 7 in 10 (73%) injury hospitalisations due to contact with objects were for males (54,366 cases) and 3 in 10 were for females (20,114 cases)
• 75 of the 89 deaths due to contact with objects were for males and 14 were for females
• the age-standardised rates of injury hospitalisation due to contact with objects were 443 cases per 100,000 males, and 161 per 100,000 females
• young people aged 15–24 had the highest rate (389 per 100,000 population) of injury hospitalisations cases due to contact with objects, compared with other life-stage age groups. Within this age group, males aged 20–24 were particularly at risk (652 per 100,000 population).

Figure 2: Hospitalisation cases due to contact with objects, by age group and sex, 2017–18

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

How severe are hospitalised injuries due to contact with objects?

Three measures that may indicate the severity of a hospitalised injury are length of stay, percentage of cases with time in an intensive care unit (ICU), and percentage of cases involving continuous ventilator support.

The average duration of a hospital stay for injuries due to contact with objects was shorter than the average for all injury hospitalisations, and the percentages of cases that included time in an ICU or involved continuous ventilator support were lower than the percentages for all hospitalised injuries (Table 2).

Note: Average number of days in hospital (length of stay) includes admissions 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.

What types of injuries are sustained?

In 2017–18, the wrist and hand were the body parts most frequently injured in hospitalisation cases due to contact with objects (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Hospitalised injury cases due to contact with objects by body part injured, 2017–18

Note: 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 not shown—see Data table A11.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detailed data, see Data table A11.

Open wound was the most common type of injury (33%) for people who were hospitalised due to contact with objects (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Hospitalised injury cases due to contact with objects, by type of injury, by sex, 2017–18

For more detailed data, see Data table A10.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

In 2017–18, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

• there were over 4,000 hospitalisations (Table 3) and 1 death due to contact with objects
• males, compared with females, were 2.0 times as likely to be hospitalised due to contact with objects
• hospitalisation rates were higher among people aged 15–24, compared with other life-stage age groups (Figure 5).

Note: Rates are crude per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

In 2017–18, Indigenous Australians, compared with non-Indigenous Australians, were 1.6 times as likely to be hospitalised due to contact with objects (after adjusting for differences in population age structure) (Table 4).

Notes:

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

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

The age-specific rate of injury hospitalisation cases due to contact with objects was highest among the 15–24 life-stage age group for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (Figure 5). Deaths data are not presented because of small numbers.

Figure 5: Injury hospitalisation cases due to contact with objects, by Indigenous status, by age group and sex, 2017–18

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

Remoteness

In 2017–18, people living in Very remote areas, compared with people living in Major cities, were 1.8 times as likely to be hospitalised due to contact with objects (using age-standardised rates) (Table 5).

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

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

The highest age-specific rate of injury hospitalisation cases due to contact with objects was among the 15–24 life-stage age group living in Very remote areas of Australia (Figure 6). Deaths data are not presented because of small numbers.

Figure 6: Hospitalisation cases due to contact with objects, by remoteness, by age group and sex, 2017–18

For more detailed data, see Data tables A7–A9 and D9–10.

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

More information

Technical notes—read about how the data were calculated.

Data tables—download full data tables.

Glossary