Men made up over half of the injury hospitalisations in a year: AIHW

Warning: This article contains information some readers may find distressing.

Adult Australian men made up more than half of the visits to hospital for injuries during 2021–22, according to the latest data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

There were close to 239,000 hospitalisations due to injury among adult men and 8700 injury-related deaths.

The AIHW data suggests 35% of these injuries were from falls, 19% were from contact with objects and 14% from transport, and the injuries were highest among the men that were aged 75 years and above.

“Among adults in Australia in 2021–22, men represented 56% of all injury presentations to emergency departments (671,000 cases),” AIHW spokesperson Dr Sarah Ahmed said.

“This higher rate of injury can be explained at least in part by the fact that men are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours and activities.”

Rates of injury presentations to emergency departments were highest among men aged 19–24 than in any other age group (10,600 per 100,000), followed by men aged 75 and over (7800) and men aged 25–44 (nearly 7400).

“Contact with tools and machinery represented 30% of injuries from contact with objects in men and was also the leading cause of object-related injury in men aged 45 and over,” Ahmed said.

“Men were over three times more likely than women to be hospitalised for injuries caused by contact with objects.”

About 80% of all object-related injury hospitalisations comprised contact with tools and machinery; contact with knives, glass and other sharp objects; and contact with blunt objects such as doors, walls, trees, rocks and sporting equipment.

The three most common causes of injury hospitalisation due to tools and machinery involved contact with non-powered hand tools (2119), powered saws (2087) and powered grinders (1972).

“The number of injury hospitalisations caused by falls has steadily increased since 2012–13. The age-standardised rate increased from 673 to 790 injury hospitalisations per 100,000 adult men,” Ahmed said.

Among adult men, those aged 19–24 were most likely to be hospitalised for transport injuries. For motorcycle riders, the injury rate was highest in men aged 19 to 24 (close to 200 injuries per 100,000) and decreased with age.

Intentional self-harm caused over 7500 hospitalisations in adult men in 2021–22 and 2300 deaths. It represented the 7th leading cause of injury hospitalisation in men and the second most common cause of injury death behind falls (3013).

***If you or anyone you know needs help, support is available now. Call Lifeline (Aus) on 131 114, or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, or Lifeline (NZ) on 0800 543 354.***

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