Almost half of injury-related hospitalisations in Australia caused by falls: Report

Canberra: Almost half of injury-related hospitalisations in Australia are caused by falls, a new government report has revealed.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Friday published a new report on the main causes of injury-related hospitalisation in the country in 2022-23 and injury deaths in 2021-22, Xinhua news agency reported.

It found that 548,654 Australians were hospitalised due to injuries in 2022-23, an increase of 20.3 per cent from 455,720 in 2013-14.

Of the injuries that required hospitalisation for treatment in 2022-23, 238,055, or 43.3 per cent, were caused by falls.

Contact with objects and transport were the next-most common cause of injury hospitalisation, accounting for a combined 139,906 cases.

"Falls have remained the leading cause of injury-related hospitalisation and fatality in Australia over the past decade and across most regions," AIHW spokesperson Sarah Ahmed said.

The report said that there were 14,733 injury deaths in Australia in 2021-22, 6,376 of which were caused by falls. Suicide accounted for 3,178 injury deaths.

Assault resulted in 20,490 hospitalisations in 2022-23 and 218 deaths in 2021-22, with people aged between 25 and 44 most likely to be affected.

Accidental poisoning caused 8,921 hospitalisations in 2022-23 and 1,567 deaths in 2021-22.