Summary

This report provides updated statistics on hospitalisations among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people due to injury. The report highlights specific areas of disadvantage in comparison with non-Indigenous people with respect to the types and causes of injury requiring hospitalisation.

Over the 5-year period 2011–12 to 2015–16, just over 115,000 Indigenous people were hospitalised as a result of an injury at an average of 23,000 cases per year. Indigenous males (56%) were more frequently hospitalised than females because of an injury.

Age-standardised rates of injury were much higher overall among Indigenous Australians (3,596 per 100,000 population) compared with non-Indigenous Australians (1,874 per 100,000 population) and the rate of injury among Indigenous females was twice that of non-Indigenous females.

Nature of injury

Indigenous people (27%) sustained a greater proportion of injuries to the head than non-Indigenous people (18%). The rate of injury to the head for Indigenous females was 12 times that of non-Indigenous females (119 cases per 100,000). Among Indigenous males aged 25–44, the rate of injury to the head was 4 times than that of non-Indigenous males (316 cases per 100,000) of the same age.

Remoteness of usual residence

The proportion of Indigenous people hospitalised as a result of an injury was higher in Inner and outer regional and Remote and very remote areas than in Major cities. Although rates of hospitalisation due to injury increased with increasing remoteness for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, the rates of injury were higher in each remoteness zone for Indigenous people compared with non-Indigenous people. The rate of injury among Indigenous people (5,808 cases per 100,000) in Remote and very remote areas was more than twice that of non-Indigenous people (2,410 cases per 100,000).

Causes of injury

For Indigenous people, the top 3 causes of injury by proportion were Assaults (25%), Falls (22%) and Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces (14%), which includes events such as being unintentionally struck, crushed and contacted by objects. After adjusting for the size of the Indigenous population, the leading cause of hospitalisation due to injury among Indigenous people was Falls (981 cases per 100,000 population) followed by Assaults (875) and Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces (430).

Compared with Indigenous males, Indigenous females were more likely to experience an injury due to Assault. For Indigenous males and females the head was the most common body part injured. Among Indigenous males a fracture was the most common outcome of an Assault, whereas an open wound was more common for Indigenous females. Assault by bodily force perpetrated by a family member was common for both Indigenous males and females.