Table 3 Injury characteristics of injured young people by grade, linked health and school performance data NSW, 2005–2018
Characteristic | Injury cohort – Grade 3 (n = 50,213) | Injury cohort – Grade 5 (n = 46,034) | Injury cohort – Grade 7 (n = 36,962) | Injury cohort – Grade 9 (n = 24,501) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Â | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % |
Injury mechanism | ||||||||
 Transport incidents | 3753 | 7.5 | 4302 | 9.4 | 4007 | 10.8 | 2985 | 12.2 |
 Falls | 24,891 | 49.6 | 22,962 | 49.9 | 18,544 | 50.2 | 12,069 | 49.3 |
 Fall from playground equipment | 7223 | 14.4 | 6519 | 14.2 | 4932 | 13.3 | 2947 | 12.0 |
 Inanimate mechanical forces | 11,051 | 22.0 | 9591 | 20.8 | 7309 | 19.8 | 4447 | 18.2 |
 Animate mechanical forces | 2274 | 4.5 | 2145 | 4.7 | 1817 | 4.9 | 1430 | 5.8 |
 Drowning and submersion or other threats to breathing | 523 | 1.0 | 376 | 0.8 | 237 | 0.6 | 95 | 0.4 |
 Smoke, fire, flames, heat and hot substances | 1937 | 3.9 | 1494 | 3.3 | 949 | 2.6 | 424 | 1.7 |
 Venomous animals and plants | 369 | 0.7 | 373 | 0.8 | 281 | 0.8 | 190 | 0.8 |
 Poisoning | 1970 | 3.9 | 1541 | 3.4 | 968 | 2.6 | 374 | 1.5 |
 Assault | 283 | 0.6 | 239 | 0.5 | 166 | 0.5 | 125 | 0.5 |
 Other and unspecified injury mechanism | 3162 | 6.3 | 3011 | 6.5 | 2684 | 7.3 | 2362 | 9.6 |
Injury severity | ||||||||
 Minor (ICISS ≤0.99) | 47,577 | 94.8 | 43,795 | 95.1 | 35,201 | 95.2 | 23,364 | 95.4 |
 Moderate (ICISS 0.942–0.99) | 1925 | 3.8 | 1668 | 3.6 | 1332 | 3.6 | 860 | 3.5 |
 Serious (ICISS < 0.942) | 711 | 1.4 | 571 | 1.2 | 429 | 1.2 | 277 | 1.1 |
 Traumatic brain injury (yes) | 1337 | 2.7 | 1268 | 2.8 | 1117 | 3.0 | 809 | 3.3 |
Principal injury type | ||||||||
 Head | 13,606 | 27.1 | 11,115 | 24.2 | 7916 | 21.4 | 4637 | 18.9 |
 Neck | 452 | 0.9 | 548 | 1.2 | 554 | 1.5 | 466 | 1.9 |
 Thorax | 170 | 0.3 | 193 | 0.4 | 199 | 0.5 | 163 | 0.7 |
 Abdomen, lower back, lumbar spine and pelvis | 992 | 2.0 | 1048 | 2.3 | 917 | 2.5 | 664 | 2.7 |
 Shoulder and upper arm | 5342 | 10.6 | 4615 | 10.0 | 3393 | 9.2 | 2165 | 8.8 |
 Elbow and forearm | 11,049 | 22.0 | 11,934 | 25.9 | 10,757 | 29.1 | 7573 | 30.9 |
 Wrist and hand | 5004 | 10.0 | 4737 | 10.3 | 4045 | 10.9 | 2920 | 11.9 |
 Hip and thigh | 1148 | 2.3 | 991 | 2.2 | 824 | 2.2 | 517 | 2.1 |
 Knee and lower leg | 2131 | 4.2 | 2338 | 5.1 | 2388 | 6.5 | 2162 | 8.8 |
 Ankle and foot | 2087 | 4.2 | 1998 | 4.3 | 1656 | 4.5 | 1091 | 4.5 |
 Other injuriesa | 8232 | 16.4 | 6517 | 14.2 | 4313 | 11.7 | 2143 | 8.8 |
Nature of principal injury | ||||||||
 Superficial injuries | 3052 | 6.1 | 2629 | 5.7 | 1888 | 5.1 | 1140 | 4.7 |
 Open wound | 10,801 | 21.5 | 9270 | 20.1 | 6848 | 18.5 | 4008 | 16.4 |
 Fracture | 21,220 | 42.3 | 21,196 | 46.0 | 18,580 | 50.3 | 13,397 | 54.7 |
 Dislocations, sprains and strains | 543 | 1.1 | 580 | 1.3 | 532 | 1.4 | 533 | 2.2 |
 Injury to nerves and spinal cord | 225 | 0.5 | 213 | 0.5 | 179 | 0.5 | 140 | 0.6 |
 Injury of eye and orbit | 258 | 0.5 | 246 | 0.5 | 204 | 0.6 | 123 | 0.5 |
 Injury to blood vessels | 64 | 0.1 | 63 | 0.1 | 62 | 0.2 | 41 | 0.2 |
 Injury to muscle, fascia and tendon | 462 | 0.9 | 492 | 1.1 | 441 | 1.2 | 344 | 1.4 |
 Crushing injury | 241 | 0.5 | 191 | 0.4 | 133 | 0.4 | 79 | 0.3 |
 Traumatic amputation | 538 | 1.1 | 426 | 1.1 | 318 | 0.9 | 165 | 0.7 |
 Injury to internal organs | 1502 | 3.0 | 1469 | 3.2 | 1303 | 3.5 | 957 | 3.9 |
 Foreign body entering through natural orifice | 3058 | 6.1 | 2376 | 5.2 | 1576 | 4.3 | 808 | 3.3 |
 Burns | 2148 | 4.3 | 1661 | 3.6 | 1077 | 2.9 | 476 | 1.9 |
 Poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances | 1574 | 3.1 | 1242 | 2.7 | 785 | 2.1 | 371 | 1.5 |
 Toxic effects of substances chiefly nonmedicinal as to source | 738 | 1.5 | 644 | 1.4 | 444 | 1.2 | 248 | 1.0 |
 Other and unspecified injuries | 3789 | 7.6 | 3336 | 7.3 | 2592 | 7.0 | 1671 | 6.8 |
| Â | mean | SD | mean | SD | mean | SD | mean | SD |
Time since index injury hospitalisation to NAPLAN assessment (months) | 46.2 | 27.4 | 57.8 | 33.3 | 66.3 | 39.4 | 70.0 | 42.9 |