Injury among women 2022–23

Intentional violence against oneself is classified as self-harm (injury) or suicide (death).

Among women in 2022–23, these intentional injuries resulted in around:

Rates of intentional self-harm hospitalisations declined while rates of suicide remained unchanged

The age-standardised rate (ASR) for intentional self-harm injury hospitalisations among women decreased between 2017–18 and 2022–23 with 2022–23 having the lowest rate for the last ten years (120.8 per 100,000 population) (Figure 26). The ASR for suicide among women in 2022–23 was similar to the rate 10 years earlier in in 2013–14, despite some fluctuations throughout the years between.

Figure 26: Number and age-standardised rate (per 100,000) of intentional self-harm injury hospitalisations and deaths by suicide among women, Australia, 2022–23

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.

Notes:

1. Only includes records where patient was aged 19 and over and patient’s sex recorded as female.
2. Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.
3. Columns are case counts, the line graph presents age-standardised rate per 100,000 population.
4. The dashed line presents a break in the time series, see Technical notes for detail.

Self-poisoning methods were more common among hospitalisations while bodily self-harm methods were more common among deaths

Over 4 in 5 injury hospitalisations for intentional self-harm in women (9,491 hospitalisations, 82.4%) involved self-poisoning in 2022–23. The most common method of self-poisoning involved unclassified antiepileptics, sedative-hypnotic, antiparkinsonism or psychotropic drugs (4,944 hospitalisations, 42.9%) (Figure 27). The most common method of bodily self-harm was self-harm by sharp object (1,416 hospitalisations, 12.3%).

For deaths from suicide, over 2 in 3 deaths by suicide were caused by bodily self-harm methods (510 deaths, 67.4%) with hanging, strangulation and suffocation as the most common cause of death from suicide among women (382 deaths, 50.5%). Like intentional self-harm hospitalisations, the most common cause of death by suicide involving self-poisoning was self-poisoning from unclassified antiepileptics, sedative-hypnotic, antiparkinsonism or psychotropic drugs (151 deaths, 19.9%).

Poisoning or toxic effect was the leading type of injury for intentional self-harm hospitalisations

For injury hospitalisations from intentional self-harm among women in 2022–23, the top 3 most common types of injury were:

The top 3 body parts self-harm injury hospitalisations were most likely to be for were:

Self-harm injury hospitalisations were possibly more severe than overall injury hospitalisations

15% of intentional self-harm injury hospitalisations included time spent in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) compared to only 2.5% for the average of all injury hospitalisations among women in 2022-23 (Table 9). The proportion of hospitalisations that involved Continuous Ventilatory Support (CVS) was also higher for women hospitalised for intentional self-harm than the overall average (9.3% and 1.0% respectively). The average length of stay (ALOS), however, was lower for intentional self-harm injuries than the average for all injury hospitalisations (2.7 and 3.6 days respectively).

Women hospitalised for intentional self-harm injuries received an average of 1.4 interventions per hospitalisation with the allied health intervention of social work being the most common intervention received (2,275 cases, 19.8%).

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Notes:

1. Only includes records where patient was aged 19 and over and patient’s sex recorded as female.
2. Average length of stay (ALOS) includes admissions that are transfers from one hospital to another or transfers from one admitted care type to another within the same hospital, except where care involved rehabilitation procedures.
3. All injuries includes intentional self-harm in the total calculations.

Intentional self-harm injuries most commonly occurred in the home

Excluding records where place of occurrence was missing, the 3 most common places an intentional self-harm injury resulting in hospitalisation occurred:

• In the home (6,162 hospitalisations, 53.5%)
• Other specified place of occurrence (212 hospitalisations, 1.8%)
• Health service area (195 hospitalisations, 1.7%). 

Almost 2 in 5 intentional self-harm hospitalisations for women (4,483 hospitalisations, 38.9%) did not have place of occurrence information recorded.  

Intentional self-harm was more common among women aged 19 to 24 years, but suicide deaths were more common among women aged 40 to 64 years

Women aged 19 to 24 years had the highest rate of injury hospitalisation due to intentional self-harm (298.9 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) and the rate of injury hospitalisation decreased with age (Figure 28). Intentional self-harm through poisoning was more common than bodily self-harm methods for all age groups.  

For deaths by suicide, the rates were higher for the middle age groups with women aged 40 to 64 years having the highest rate of death by suicide (8.2 per 100,000 population).

Figure 28: Number and crude rate (per 100,000) of injury hospitalisations due to self-harm and injury deaths from suicide by method of harm and age group, Australia, 2022–23

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.

Notes:

1. Only includes records where patient was aged 19 and over and patient’s sex recorded as female.
2. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
3. Rates where underlying numerator count is under 10 are excluded from display.
4. Hospitalisation counts under 5 are excluded from display.
5. Death counts under 3 are excluded from display.

For more information, see supplementary data tables.