Health conditions

Injury and poisoning

Injury and poisoning are large contributors to ill health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

In 2018–19, among Indigenous Australians:

• Injury and poisoning was the second main cause of hospitalisation, accounting for 7% of all hospitalisations—a rate of 45 hospitalisations per 1,000 population (37,460 hospitalisations).
• The hospitalisation rate for injury and poisoning was highest for those aged 65 and over (68 per 1,000 or 2,735 hospitalisations), followed by those aged 35–44 (64 per 1,000 or 5,674 hospitalisations).
• Except for those aged 65 and over, the rate of hospitalisation for injury and poisoning was higher for Indigenous males than for Indigenous females (Figure HC 15a).

Based on self-reported data, 19% (120,648) of Indigenous Australians said they had an accident, hurt themselves, or had been hurt by someone or something else in the last 4 weeks. The rate of injuries was highest among children aged under 15 (23% or 53,142) (Figure HC 15b).

In 2018–19, the age-standardised rate of hospitalisations:

• For assault was 9.1 per 1,000 population (6,840 hospitalisations) among Indigenous Australians and 0.7 per 1,000 population (16,080 hospitalisations) for non-Indigenous Australians.
• For intentional-self harm was 3.6 per 1,000 population (2,980 hospitalisations) among Indigenous Australians and 1.2 hospitalisations per 1,000 population (27,641 hospitalisations) for non-Indigenous Australians (Figure HC 16).