Injury causes and age
Different age groups can be affected by different injury risk factors. This is partly due to the life stages a person goes through, including their physical development; health status; socioeconomic area; lifestyle and activities a person is involved in (Chau et al 2009).
For hospitalisations in 2022–23 (Figure 10):
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Updated
Falls were commonest among those aged 75+ (46% of reported falls) followed by those aged under 15 (10% of reported falls)
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3 in 10 transport injury hospitalisations occurred among 15-29 year-olds (28%)
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Accidental poisoning mainly affected the very young (0-to-4-year-olds) and the elderly (80 years and older)
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Most assault-related injury hospitalisations occurred among 15-to-49-year olds (78%)
For injury deaths in 2020–21:
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Transport related deaths were highest for 20-24-year-olds (130 deaths)
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Choking and suffocation was the second leading cause for persons aged 85 and over (around 530 cases or a rate of 98 deaths per 100,000)
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Suicide was the leading cause for those aged between 15 and 64
Figure 10: Interactive ranking of causes of injuries by age, Australia, 2022–23
Figure 10 shows the top 10 ranked causes of injury hospitalisations and deaths, by sex and age group.
Notes:
- Rankings are presented from highest to lowest by crude rate per 100,000 population and show the number of cases for each age group.
- Intentional self-harm hospitalisation cases are not shown for the 0–4 and 5–14 age groups due to the difficulty in assigning intent to the actions of young children. Elsewhere, intentional self-harm statistics are shown for a combined 0–14 age group.
- Suicide rates in the 5–14 age group are based on suicides recorded for the 0–14 age group due to the difficulty in assigning intent to the action of younger children.
- Injuries due to ‘other intentional causes’ are not included in the top 10 displayed categories.
Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.
For more detail, see supplementary data tables H2 and D2.