Children and adolescents at greater risk of certain types of injury according to developmental stage

Every year, thousands of children and adolescents across Australia present to an Emergency Department (ED) or are hospitalised for an injury or poisoning incident. Injury hospitalisations are the third leading contributor to the burden of disease for children and adolescents aged 0–19.?

This report released today, Injuries in children and adolescents 2021–22 explores the main types, causes and severity of around 604,000 ED presentations and 89,000 injury hospitalisations that occurred amongst children and adolescents in 2021–22. Injury represented 28% of all ED presentations and 8.3% of hospitalisations among children.??

In 2021–22:?

• Boys made up around 3 in 5 injury ED presentations (353,000, 58%) and hospitalisations (54,000, 61%) among children and adolescents.?
• One in 3 injury hospitalisations among children were caused by a fall, most commonly involving playground equipment.?
• More than half of injuries caused by falls resulted in fractures, with fractures accounting for more than a third of injury hospitalisations among children and adolescents.?
• The most common injuries diagnosed at an ED for children under the age of 9 were head injuries. Head and neck injuries made up 70% of infant injury hospitalisations and 63% of injury ED presentations.?
• Children aged 1–4 were over 14 times more likely than adults to be hospitalised for injuries caused by drowning and submersion, while children aged 5–9 were 2.8 times more likely.?
• Infants 0–1 year had the highest rate of injury hospitalisation caused by choking and suffocation amongst children and were 7.5 times more likely than adults to be hospitalised.?
• The risk of injury changes by developmental stage. Children aged 1–4 had the highest rate of ED presentation (12,200 per 100,000).?
• Poisoning and toxic effect injuries are the only type of injury where girls were more likely than boys to be hospitalised. The leading type of poisoning among girls was Poisoning by nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics and antirheumatics (44%).?

Injuries sustained during childhood can have profound and lifelong effects on health and development. This report presents child and adolescent injury as a whole, as well as comparing individual stages of childhood development with adults to identify key areas of injury prevention for this population.?

The report does not include information on injuries among children that did not result in ED presentation or hospitalisations. There are many cases treated by general practitioners, allied health professional or outpatient clinics that are not reflected in this report.??