1. All injury deaths, Australia 1993

• Age and sex distribution
• Trends in death rates
• State and Territory differences
• Major types of injury deaths

• 1993 saw the lowest injury death rate on record; and
• the fewest injury deaths since 1961.

Table 1.1 Key indicators

Age and sex distribution

Injury death rates were highest in old age. Rates were also high for young adult males. Deaths were most frequent among young adults. 42% of male cases and 27% of female cases were at ages 20-39 years. Male rates were higher than female rates in all age groups. Injury accounted for 6% of all deaths in 1993, for 52% of deaths at ages 1-39 years, and 71% of deaths at ages 15-24 years. 25% of years of potential life lost before age 75 from all causes were due to injury.

Trends in death rates

The injury death rate continued to fall from the post-WW2 peak in 1967. The rate in 1993 was the lowest on record and the number of injury deaths was the lowest since 1961. The male rate continued to be much higher than the female rate. National injury control targets for the year 2000 were set in 1994. The targets that can be monitored using currently available injury deaths data are shown in this Bulletin. For further information, see Better Health Outcomes for Australians.[1] A national target for the year 2000 is to reduce the injury death rate for persons by 20% from the 1992 rate.[1] The decline in rate between 1992 and 1993 was about 38% of the drop required to reach the target.

State and Territory differences

In 1993, the adjusted injury death rate for the NT was well above the national rate. While high, the rate in 1993 was among the lowest rates recorded for the NT. The NT rate was high for most injury types. As in most recent years, the 1993 rate for Tasmania was significantly above the national rate. In 1993, suicide accounted for most of this excess. The rate for the ACT has been noticeably lower than the national rate every year since 1987. The 1993 rate was exceptionally low. Rates were low for most major types of injury death, and especially so for transport deaths and homicides. Rates somewhat lower than national rates for several major types of injury deaths underlie the low overall rate for Victoria. Figure 1.3 shows rates based on place of death registration (normally the place where death occurred). For the ACT, the rate based on place of usual residence was 13% higher. Elsewhere, the two types of rates differed by 5% or less.

Major types of injury deaths

Most injury deaths in Australia are due to transport injury or suicide. In 1993, these two types accounted for 66% of male injury deaths and 51% of female injury deaths. "Falls" is the only major type for which male and female case numbers were similar. The major types of injury deaths are described in more detail on following pages.

Reduction in road deaths has accounted for most of the overall decline in injury death rates. Other major types of injury death have declined to a much smaller degree, or not at all. The mostly upward trend in male suicide rates stands out against the general downward trend.

The proportions of types of injury death varied with age. Drowning was prominent in early childhood, accounting for 25% of injury deaths at ages 0-4, and for 31% at ages 1-3 years in 1993. Transport accounted for a large proportion of injury deaths in adolescence and early adulthood. Suicide emerges as a major type of injury death during adolescence, and remains so until old age. Cases related to falls were the dominant type of injury death in old age. Homicide accounted for a fairly constant proportion of injury deaths from infancy until late middle age. Poisoning, largely by drugs, was most prominent from adolescence through to middle age.