Differences by sex and age groups
Overview
Different groups of the population experience differing rates of injury by cause and type of injury. Age can affect injury risk factors, in part 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). While males contribute to most cases of injury across most causes, older people, young children, and older females are often more prone to falls. This chapter details how causes of injury differ by age and sex.
Overall, for injury-related emergency department (ED) presentations, hospitalisations and deaths, males were more likely to be injured than females (Figure 18).
Younger males were more likely to present to ED and to be hospitalised than females, whereas among people aged 65 years and older there was less difference in presentation by sex. Males were more likely to die from injuries than females across all age groups from about 10 years of age onwards. Female injury rates became comparable to those among males much later in life: from about 70 years for ED presentations, 65 years for hospitalisations and 80 years for deaths. While older people had high rates of injuries presenting to ED, being hospitalised or dying, among children notably injury ED presentation rates were high before starting to decline in adolescence.
Figure 18: Crude rate of hospitalisations, deaths and ED presentations for injury, by 5-year age group, Australia, 2023–24
Notes:
- Person totals include hospitalisations where the sex of the patient was other, inadequately described or not stated.
- Crude rates per 100,000 population.
Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, AIHW National Non-admitted Patient Emergency Department Care Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.