Injuries from overexertion are typically the result of physical stress or overuse of the body. This can include from lifting heavy objects, repetitive movements, motion sickness, or lack of food or water.

Overexertion and related injuries caused:

16,000 hospitalisations in 2020–21

63 per 100,000 population

 14 deaths in 2019–20

0.1 per 100,000 population

This represents around 3% of injury hospitalisations.

In males, the 15–24 age group had the highest risk, while in females, the 65 and over group had the highest risk.

Injuries from overexertion are represented by the ICD external cause codes X50–57. Overexertion and strenuous or repetitive movements account for almost all hospitalisations in this group.

This chapter summarises data on unintentional injuries only. Intentional injuries and deaths are included under Self-harm injuries and suicide or Assault and homicide.

Deaths from overexertion injuries are rare, and are not discussed in detail below.

Causes of hospitalisation

In 2020–21, almost all hospitalisations in this group were caused by overexertion and strenuous or repetitive movements (Table 1).

Table 1: Causes of injury in overexertion hospitalisations, 2020–21

Location

Hospitalisations

%

Rate (per 100,000)

Overexertion and strenuous or repetitive movements (X50)

16,000

99.7

62.4

Travel and motion (X51)

23

0.1

0.1

Lack of food or water, or other privation (X52–57)

18

0.1

0.1

Total

16,041

100

62.5

Notes

  1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
  2. Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
  3. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes (ACCD 2019).

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Data tables B23–24.

Seasonal differences

Hospital admissions for overexertion injuries do not follow a strong seasonal pattern. Cases typically remain relatively steady throughout the year, with a dip over December and January.

In March 2020, COVID-19 restrictions coincided with a steep decline in hospitalisations for overexertion. This resulted in 30% fewer from March to May than the in same period of the previous year. As initial restrictions eased, hospitalisations rose back towards previous levels (Figure 1).

The interactive display illustrates other seasonal differences in injury hospitalisations.

Figure 1: Seasonal differences in overexertion injury hospitalisations, 2018–19 to 2020–21

Notes
1. Admission counts have been standardised into two 15-day periods per month.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Trends over time

The age-standardised rate of injury hospitalisations due to overexertion in 2020–21 was 12% higher than the previous year. The previous year had seen a dip that appears to have been related to COVID-19 restrictions.

Over the period from 2011–12 to 2016–17 there was an average annual increase of 3.7% for the age-standardised rate of hospitalisations  (Figure 2). 

There is a break in the time series for hospitalisations between 2016–17 and 2017–18, due to a change in data collection methods (see the technical notes for details).

Figure 2: Overexertion injury hospitalisations, by sex and year

Line graphs for hospitalisations over 10 years. The 3 lines represent the trend for males, persons, and females. The reader can choose to display rate per 100,000 population or number.

Visualisation not available for printing

For more detail, see Data tables C1–3 and F1–4.

Age and sex differences

Rates of hospitalisation from overexertion injuries differ between males and females over the life-stages (Figure 2). In 2020–21:

  • 58% of hospitalisations were for males
  • for males, the highest rate was in the 15–24 age group
  • for females, the highest rate was for those aged 65 and over
  • the age-standardised rates of overexertion hospitalisations were:
    • 73 cases per 100,000 males, and
    • 49 per 100,000 females.

Figure 2: Overexertion injury hospitalisations, by age group and sex, 2020–21

Column graph representing sex within 6 life-stage age groups. The reader can choose to display for each age group either rate per 100,000 population or number. The default displays rate of hospitalisations for males and females and the reader can also choose to display persons, and display deaths.

For more detail, see Data tables A1–3 and D1–3.

Severity

There are many ways that the severity, or seriousness, of an injury can be assessed. Some of the ways to measure the severity of hospitalised injuries are:

  • number of days in hospital
  • time in an intensive care unit (ICU)
  • time on a ventilator
  • in-hospital deaths.

Overexertion injuries appear to be less severe than the average for all hospitalised injuries in 2020–21 (Table 2).

Table 2: Severity of overexertion injury hospitalisations, 2020–21
 

Overexertion

All injuries

Average number of days in hospital

2.5

4.4

% of cases with time in an ICU

0.4

2.2

% of cases involving continous ventilatory support

0.1

1.2

In-hospital deaths (per 1,000 cases)

0.4

5.3

Note: Average number of days in hospital (length of stay) 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 involves rehabilitation procedures.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Data tables A13–15.

Nature of injuries sustained

In 2020–21, the hip and lower limb was the body area most often identified as the main site of injury in overexertion hospitalisations (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Overexertion hospitalisations, by main body part injured, 2020–21

Hover over a body part for more information:

Outline of a person with labels for body parts accounting for hospitalisations due to overexertion. Injuries to the hip and leg accounted for the most hospitalisations, while the head and neck accounted for the fewest.

Visualisation not available for printing

Notes

  1. Main body part refers to the principal reason for hospitalisation.
  2. ‘Trunk’ includes thorax, abdomen, lower back, lumbar spine & pelvis.
  3. Number and percentage of injuries classified as Other, multiple, and incompletely specified body regions and Injuries not described in terms of body region not shownsee Data table A11.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Data table A11.

Soft-tissue injuries were the most common type of injury for people who were hospitalised due to overexertion (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Overexertion hospitalisations, by type of injury, 2020–21

Bar graph showing type of injury sustained by category and by sex. Soft tissue injury was the most common for both males and females but 1.7 times as frequent for males as for females. Fracture was the second most common injury for both males and females. The reader can choose to display either the crude rate per 100,000 population or the number of cases. The default display shows data for males and females, and the reader can also choose to display for persons.

Visualisation not available for printing

For more detail, see Data table A10.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

In 2020–21, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

  • there were 650 hospitalisations (Table 3) and fewer than 5 deaths due to overexertion
  • males were 1.4 times as likely as females to be hospitalised
  • hospitalisation rates were highest among people aged 15–24 (Figure 5).
Table 3: Overexertion injury hospitalisations, by sex, Indigenous Australians, 2020–21

 

Males

Females

Persons

Number

      374

274

648

Rate (per 100,000)

87

64

 75

Note: Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

In 2020–21, Indigenous Australians, compared with non-Indigenous Australians, were 1.4 times as likely to be hospitalised due to overexertion (Table 4).

Table 4: Age-standardised rates (per 100,000) of overexertion injury hospitalisations, by Indigenous status and sex, 2020–21

 

Males

Females

Persons

Indigenous Australians

97

 72

 84

Non-Indigenous Australians

72

48

60

Notes

  1. Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.
  2. ‘Non-Indigenous Australians’ excludes cases where Indigenous status is missing or not stated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

The age group with the highest rate of overexertion hospitalisations among Indigenous Australians was the 15–24 year-olds (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Overexertion injury hospitalisations, by Indigenous status, by age group and sex, 2020–21

Column graph for hospitalisations. The columns represent data for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 6 life-stage age groups. For each age group, the reader can choose to display rate per 100,000 population or number. The reader can also choose to display data for persons, males, or females.

For more detail, see Data tables A4–A6 and D4–D8.

Remoteness

In 2020–21 males living in Inner and Outer regional areas had the highest rates of hospitalisation due to overexertion (Table 5).

Table 5: Age-standardised rates (per 100,000) of overexertion injury hospitalisation, by remoteness and sex, 2020–21
 

 Males

 Females

 Persons

Major cities

               70

               47

               59

Inner regional

               80

               54

               67

Outer regional

               83

               55

               69

Remote

               77

               63

               70

Very remote

               64

               43

               54

Note: Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

The highest age-specific rate of overexertion hospitalisation cases was among the 15–24 age group living in Remote areas of Australia. (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Overexertion injury hospitalisations, by remoteness, by age group and sex, 2020–21

Column graph for hospitalisations. The columns represent data for each of the 5 remoteness categories by 6 life-stage age groups. For each age group, the reader can choose to display rate per 100,000 population or number. The reader can also choose to display data for persons, males, or females.

For more detail, see Data tables A7–A9 and D9–10.

For information on how the statistics were calculated by remoteness, see the technical notes.

Data details

Technical notes: how the data were calculated

Data tables: download the full tables

Glossary