Thermal causes

< causes of Injury

Thermal causes of injury include exposure to smoke, fire and flames as well as contact with hot substances and heat sources, such as hot food and drinks, and household appliances. Burns from bushfires fall in this category.

Children under 5, especially boys, are most at risk of serious thermal injury.

Thermal injuries resulted in:

This represents 1.0% of injury hospitalisations and 0.9% of injury deaths.

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

Thermal causes of injury that led to hospitalisation

In 2021–22:

• 3 in 5 hospitalisations due to thermal causes (60%) were from contact with heat and hot substances
• 2 in 5 hospitalisations due to thermal causes (40%) were from exposure to fire, smoke and flames (Table 1).

Notes

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
2. Percentages and rates may not equal total 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 B13–14.

Thermal causes of injury that led to death

In 2020–21, thwo thirds of deaths from thermal causes (66%) were from exposure to fire, smoke and flames (Table 2).

Notes

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population, calculated using estimated resident population as at 31 December of the relevant year.
2. Percentages may not equal 100 due to rounding.
3. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10 external cause codes (WHO 2011).

Source: AIHW National Mortality Database.

For more detail, see Data tables B19–21.

Trends over time

Over the period from 2017–18 to 2021–22, the age-standardised rate of hospitalisations for thermal injuries decreased by an annual average of 2.0%. From 2012–13 to 2016–17 there was an average annual decrease of ­0.6%.

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).

The rate of deaths from thermal injuries decreased between 2011–12 and 2020–21 by an annual average of 2.4% (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Thermal injury hospitalisations and deaths,  by year

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

Seasonal differences

Hospitalisations due to injuries from thermal causes are higher over the colder months (Figure 2).

The interactive display illustrates other seasonal differences in injury hospitalisations.

Figure 2: Seasonal differences in hospitalisations for thermal injuries, 2019–20 to 2021–22

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.

Differences by age and sex

Rates of hospitalisation and death from thermal injuries differ between males and females, especially for certain age groups.

Among thermal injury cases:

• 64% of hospitalisations in 2021–22 were for males
• the age-standardised rates of hospitalisation were 28 per 100,000 males and 16 per 100,000 females
• children aged under 5 had the highest rate of hospitalisation per 100,000 population (Figure 3)
• 67% of deaths in 2020–21 were for males
• the age-standardised rates of death were 0.6 per 100,000 males and 0.3 per 100,000 females.

Figure 3: Thermal injury hospitalisations and deaths, by age group and sex

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 measured. 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.

The average number of days in hospital for thermal injuries was higher than the average for all injuries, and the percentages of thermal cases that included time in an ICU and/or involved continuous ventilatory support were higher than for all injuries. The rate of in-hospital death was lower than the average.

Note: Average number of days in hospital (length of stay) includes hospitalisations that are transfers from 1 hospital to another or transfers from 1 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 A12–13.

Body part injured

In 2021–22, the hip and leg was the body part most often identified as the main site of injury in hospitalisations for thermal injuries (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Hospitalisations for thermal injuries, by main body part injured, 2021–22

Notes: Body part relates to the main (principal) reason for hospitalisation. Number and percentage of injuries classified as Other, multiple and incompletely specified body regions or Injuries not described in terms of body region not shown—see Data table A11.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

In 2021–22, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

• there were 600 hospitalisations for thermal injury (Table 4)
• males were 1.7 times as likely as females to be hospitalised due to thermal causes (age-standardised)
• thermal injury hospitalisation rates were highest in the 0–4 age group (Figure 5).

There were 5 deaths of Indigenous Australians from thermal injuries in 2021–22.

Note: Rates are crude per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

In 2021–22, Indigenous Australians were 3.1 times as likely as non-Indigenous Australians to be hospitalised due to a thermal injury (Table 4). Deaths are not compared here due to the small number of cases.

Notes

1. Rates are age-standardised to the 2001 Australian population (per 100,000).
2. ‘Non-Indigenous Australians’ excludes cases where Indigenous status is missing or not stated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

The age-specific rate of injury hospitalisations due to thermal causes was highest among the 0–4 age group (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Hospitalisations for thermal injuries, by Indigenous status, age group and sex, 2021–22

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

Remoteness

In 2021–22, people living in Very remote areas were 6.0 times as likely as people living in Major cities to be hospitalised for a thermal injury (Table 5).

Deaths data are not presented because of small numbers.

Note: Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

In 2021–22, when comparing remoteness areas, the rate of hospitalisation for thermal injuries was highest for children aged 0–4 living in Very remote areas (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Hospitalisations for thermal injuries, by remoteness, by age group and sex, 2021–22

For more detail, see Data tables A7–A9 and D9–D10.

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

Data details

Technical notes: how the data were calculated

Data tables: download the full tables

Glossary

< causes of Injury