Injury is a major cause of hospitalization in Australia and the leading cause of death for people under 44 years of age.

And injuries from falls, transport, assault and accidental poisoning are among the most fatal, according to new data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

In its latest figures, the AIHW takes a closer look at these four leading causes of hospitalization and death, highlighting current trends and changes over the past decade.

Overall, the report found that most people injured themselves at home, followed by streets or highways.

Of the 1.9 million people who presented to emergency departments with injuries in 2022-2023, the majority were men.

And men were more likely to die from external injuries than women.

The number of injury deaths has generally increased over time, but there have been declines and fluctuations by age, region and cause.

This is a snapshot of what the data tells us.

Falling

Falls have remained the leading cause of injury-related hospitalization and death in Australia over the past decade and in most regions.

In 2022–2023, falls accounted for more than two in five of all injury hospitalizations and more than two in five injury deaths in 2021–22.

Over the period 2021-2022, fall injuries were estimated to have cost the health system $4.7 billion.

Falls were the leading cause of injury death for both men and women.

AIHW spokesperson Dr. Sarah Ahmed, said there is a relationship between falls and age.

People over 75 were most likely to be injured in a fall.

And the country’s aging population is leading to an increase in hospitalization rates for falls, she added.

Most falls were related to slipping, tripping, and tripping.

Men were most likely to fall either through a building or structure, and women from stairs.

All genders under the age of 15 ended up in hospital with injuries from falling off the playground equipment.

Transport accidents

Thousands of Australians are injured or killed in road and other transport accidents every year, most commonly while in a car, motorbike or bicycle.

Transport accidents accounted for around 11% of all injury hospitalizations in 2022-2023.

But across all types of transport, age groups and sexes, injury rates have generally declined over the past decade.

People aged 15 to 24 had the highest rate of hospitalizations for injury, and men aged 65 and over had the highest rate of death.

Sixty-one percent of transportation hospitalizations were the result of a collision, involving other vehicles rather than stationary objects.

Patterns also emerged across times of the year, with hospitalizations tending to decrease during the winter.

Assault

Assault was the seventh leading cause of hospitalizations for injuries in 2022-2023.

But the likelihood of Australians being hospitalized for an attack has generally fallen over the past decade.

Dr. Ahmed said it is “good news” that overall rates of hospitalizations and deaths from assaults are declining, but other patterns and trends are beginning to emerge.

Assault with physical force, blunt and sharp objects were the most common types of hospitalizations due to assault in 2022-2023.

“What stood out for us this year was hospitalizations with assault injuries from suffocation, strangulation or hanging,” she said.

“When we compared this year to the average of the last five years, these types of assault injuries were higher this year in every month of the year.

Injuries and deaths were most likely among people aged 25 to 44.

Men were the most common perpetrators in all types of attacks.

The highest rates of assault injury hospitalizations occurred where the perpetrators were a spouse or domestic partner.

These attacks remained considerably higher in women than in men, with women aged 25 to 44 being the most affected.

The number of homicides has generally decreased over time.

In 2021-2022, people aged 45 to 64 had the highest homicide rate of all age groups.

Most of the aggressors were men, regardless of the victim’s gender and age, and most had a criminal record.

Accidental poisoning

Hospitalizations for injuries and deaths from accidental poisoning mostly involved pharmaceuticals.

These often include antiepileptics, a class of drugs that prevent or treat seizures, and sedatives.

Narcotics and opioids such as codeine, morphine and heroin were also among the most common substances of harm.

Alcohol was the substance ranked fourth.

But hospitalizations for alcohol poisoning were lower in 2022-2023 than the previous five-year average, which showed a seasonal peak in the summer.

Accidental poisoning was the third leading cause of injury death in 2021-2022.

Hospitalizations have generally declined over the past decade, but cases severe enough to require ventilatory support have doubled.

Children aged 0 to 4 were most likely to be affected, but deaths were most common among people aged 45 to 64.

The most common causes of accidental poisoning in children under four involved pharmaceutical substances.

Dr. Ahmed said that overall, the report allowed the researchers to point out patterns and that further work would be submitted to analyze the reasons for some of the changes.

“This ongoing work monitors trends in injury as a major cause of morbidity, permanent disability and mortality with the aim of informing discussions of injury risk, prevention and management,” she said.

“By going into more detail for these four big causes … our hope is that it will lead to more of a discussion and some decisions around policy.”