Spinal cord injury, Australia 2007-08

Lynda Norton

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Canberra
AIHW cat. no. INJCAT 128

In 2007–08 there were 362 new spinal cord injuries (SCI), the majority of which (79%) were due to traumatic causes.

SCI were most frequent in the 15-24 year age group (30%), although trends show a significant increase in the average age at injury from 38 years in 1995-96 to 42 years in 2007-08.

Males accounted for 84% of traumatic SCI.

Transport-related injuries (46%) and falls (28%) were the main contributors to traumatic SCI.

Rates for the NT and WA were significantly higher than the national incidence rate.

The report is available as a PDF document (~3007 Kb).

NOTE:
If you have problems downloading or reading a PDF document in your browser, you can find answers to most common Adobe Acrobat Reader issues in this Acrobat Reader Support document at the Adobe website.