Spinal injuries in Australia 2020-21

In 2020-21, the majority of injury cases did not include a record of the activity being undertaken at the time of injury (64% or 16,950) so these findings should be interpreted with caution. For the remaining 36%, injury occurred most commonly while engaged in:

• other types of work or while working for income (12% or 3,260 cases)
• sport, exercise or recreational activities (11% or 2,835 cases)
• resting, sleeping, eating or other vital activities (8% or 2,018 cases).

Sport, exercise or recreational activities

In 2020-21, the largest contributors to sports-related spinal injury hospitalisations (Table 3) were:

• cycling (23% or 660 cases)
• wheeled motor sports (18% or 503 cases), and
• equestrian activities (16% or 457 cases).

Within each of these sports, there was a strong sex disparity: 

• Males accounted for 86% of all sports-related spinal injury hospitalisations due to cycling, and 93% due to wheeled motor sports. 
• Females accounted for 82% of all sports-related spinal injury hospitalisations due to equestrian activities (457 cases). 
• Overall, males contributed to 68% of all sports-related spinal injury hospitalisations (1,940 cases).

Equestrian activities had the highest proportion of sports-related spinal injury hospitalisations, with 18% of all equestrian injuries being a spinal injury (Table 5).

Equestrian related spine injuries were highest in:

• Females 
• People in the 45-64 age group, followed by the 25-44 then the 15–24 age group (37% or 168 cases, 31% or 141 cases, and 18% or 80 cases, respectively).

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.