Data show older women at far greater risk of injury from a fall

Falls cause more Aussies to be hospitalised than any other form of injury, data released on Wednesday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found 

The information, published in the Trends in hospitalised injury, Australia 1999–00 to 2014–15 report, found that more Australians were being hospitalised for all injuries, with falls and transport crashes the most common causes. Falls accounted for a shocking 41 per cent of all injuries treated at hospitalised, though, while road accidents made up  12 per cent of all hospitalisations.

Hospitalisations for accidental poisoning and assault fell, but hospitalisations for “exposure to mechanical forces” and intentional self-harm rose over the 1999-00 to 2014-15 period.

AIHW spokesperson Professor James Harrison said hospitalisations for injury has continued to grow rapidly over the years.

“The number of hospitalised injury cases rose from 327,000 in 1999–00 to 480,000 in 2014–15,” Harrison said in a statement. “This equated to one person requiring hospitalisation in every 58 Australians in 1999–00, rising to about one in 50 in 2014–15.”

That’s an increase of one per cent per year when changes to the population are taken into account, and while the average length of stay in hospital due to an injury stayed flat at four days over the period, it equated to a huge  1.7 million ‘hospital days’ for the 48,000 cases seen in 2014-15.

Women are more likely to stay longer in hospital than men, who average three days, but men made up 55 per cent of all injuries in 2014-15. And although the 20-24 age group in men is most affected by injury, for women, the greatest number of injuries occurred in the 85-89 age group. Falls made up 32 per cent of all male hospitalisations and 52 per cent for females.

“Overall, people aged 65 or over accounted for 30 per cent of injury cases, with the majority of these being for falls,” Harrison said.

Injury is also a bigger problem for people in remote and rural areas of Australia, with these residents hospitalised for injury at twice the rate of people living in big cities. In remote areas, one in 27 people are hospitalised for injury, compared to one in 54 for major cities. Harrison added Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are twice as likely as non-indigenous Australians to be hospitalised for injury.

It’s not the first time data has shown a rise in the fall-related injuries. A 2015 report by The Royal Melbourne Hospital found falls were the second biggest cause for admissions in older Australians. Behind chest pain, 540 people aged over 70 were admitted to the hospital in 2014, collapsing by fainting or falls with most taking place in their own home.

What do you think? Have you ever been hospitalised for a fall or another injury? How long did you spend in hospital to recover?