Injury among women 2022–23

As at 30 June 2022, around 28% of the Australian population live in regional and remote areas (AIHW 2024). Women living in remote areas of Australia face unique health challenges compared to those living in metropolitan areas. These challenges include limited access to healthcare, and higher rates of behavioural risk factors such as smoking and risky alcohol consumption. As a result, women living in regional and remote areas often experience poorer health outcomes. For more information on the risk factors and health outcomes for those living in rural and remote areas, please see Rural and remote health.

Women living in remote areas were more likely to die from injury, present to an emergency department (ED) or be hospitalised with injuries than women in cities in 2022–23. Using age-standardised rates (ASR), women living in Very remote areas of Australia were over twice as likely to be hospitalised for injury than women living in Major cities (4,852.7 and 1,983.7 per 100,000 population respectively) (Figure 45).

The same pattern was observed for ED presentations where the rate of hospitalisations for women in Very remote areas was 2.9 times higher than that of women in Major cities (12,142.5 and 4,165.5 per 100,000 population respectively).

Although women living in Very remote areas also had the highest rate of injury deaths (ASR 87.5 per 100,000 population) compared to other remoteness areas, the rate of injury deaths did not strictly increase with remoteness.

For all age groups except those aged 65 and over, the rate of injury hospitalisation increased with remoteness (Figure 46). Women aged 25 to 39 had the largest difference by region where the rate for those living in Very remote areas was 5.7 times higher than their counterparts living in Major cities (ASR 11,673.3 and 2,033.8 per 100,000 population respectively). The highest rate of injury hospitalisation for women aged 65 and over were for those living in Major cities. Rates increased by remoteness for injury ED presentations among women aged 25 to 39 and those aged 40 to 64. Among women aged 19 to 24 and aged 65 and over, the highest rates of injury ED presentation were for those living in Remote areas. Among women aged 65 and over, the rate of injury death for those living in Very remote areas was 1.3 times higher compared with their counterparts living in Major cities (ASR 471.7 and 360.3 per 100,000 population respectively).

Sources: AIHW National Non-Admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database, 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.
6. Remoteness is based on the usual place of residence of the patient. Records where remoteness was missing are excluded from display in table.

Falls is the leading cause of injury hospitalisation and death for most regions of Australia

Unintentional falls were the leading cause of injury hospitalisation among women in all regions of Australia except for Very remote areas where the leading cause of hospitalisation for women was assault. For deaths, falls is the leading cause across all regions of Australia (Figure 47).

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. Rates where underlying numerator count is under 20 are excluded from display.
4. Hospitalisation counts under 5 are excluded from display.
5. Death counts under 3 are excluded from display.
6. Remoteness is based on the usual place of residence of the patient. Records where remoteness was missing are excluded from display in table.
7. Records where external cause of injury was not reported are excluded from display.

Women living in very remote areas were over twice as likely to die from falls than most other areas

While for most types of falls the highest rate of injury hospitalisation was for women living in Very remote areas, injury hospitalisation rates due to fall on and from stairs and steps (W10) were highest for women living in Major cities (ASR 84.3 per 100,000 population) with the rate being 1.9 times higher than the rate for women living in Very remote areas (ASR 45.1 per 100,000 population).

The most common types of falls causing injury hospitalisation were the same for women living across all remoteness areas:

• Fall on same level from slipping, tripping and stumbling (W01)
• Other fall on same level (W18)
• Unspecified fall (W19).

The greatest disparity in injury hospitalisation rates by remoteness was observed for assault compared to all other causes of injury

In 2022–23, women living in more remote areas experienced higher rates of assault injury hospitalisations than women living in more urban areas, and this pattern was consistent for all categories of assault (Figure 49).

The disparity in age-standardised rates of women’s injury hospitalisation between remote and urban areas is widest for assault, out of all causes of injury. The rate for injury hospitalisations due to assault for women living in Very remote areas was 43.1 times higher compared to women living in Major cities (2,007.9 and 46.2 per 100,000 population respectively). In comparison, the hospitalisation ASR for all causes of injury among women living in Very remote areas was only 2.4 times higher than their counterparts living in Major cities (4,852.7 and 1,983.7 per 100,000 population respectively).

Homicide death rates among women also generally increased with remoteness (Figure 49). Due to small case counts, age-standardised rates could not be calculated for women living in Remote and Very remote areas.

Rates of accidental poisoning hospitalisations were highest for remote areas and death rates were highest for outer regional areas

In 2022–23, women living in Remote areas of Australia had the highest rate of injury hospitalisation due to accidental poisoning and were 1.6 times more likely to be hospitalised than women living in Inner regional areas who had the lowest rate of hospitalisation (ASR 42.1 and 26.2 per 100,000 population respectively) (Figure 50).

Rates of self-harm injury hospitalisations for women increased with remoteness

The age-standardised rate of intentional self-harm injury hospitalisations for women increased with remoteness, with the rates of hospitalisations for women living in Very remote areas almost double the rate of women living in Major cities (213.3 and 110.9 per 100,000 population respectively) (Figure 51). Suicide age-standardised rates also increased with remoteness for women, however, due to small case counts, age-standardised rates could not be calculated for women living in Remote and Very remote areas.

Women living in very remote areas were twice as likely to be hospitalised for transport-related injury than women in major cities

In 2022–23, the age-standardised rate (ASR) of hospitalisation due to transport-related injury among women increased with remoteness. Women living in Very remote areas had the highest ASR of injury hospitalisation and was double the ASR of women living in Major cities (303.5 and 151.4 per 100,000 population respectively) (Figure 52).

Unlike for hospitalisations, women living in Inner regional areas had the highest rate of death from transport accident injury (97 deaths, ASR 5.7 per 100,000 population). Rates for Remote and Very remote areas are not presented due to data quality arising from small underlying case counts. Please see Technical notes for more information.