Hospitalisations due to falls by older people, to 2009

Three new reports from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare use hospital separations data from the National Hospital Morbidity Database to describe fall-related hospitalizations in the financial years 2006–07, 2007-08 and 2008-09.  Trends since 1999 are also presented. 

From the 2008-9 report, significantly more females suffered fall-related hospitalisations, mainly with hip and knee injuries.  Males presented with more head injuries.  One in every ten days spent in hospital by a person aged 65 and older in 2008–09 was directly attributable to an injurious fall. These episodes of hospital care used 1.2 million patient days over the year and the average total length of stay per fall injury case was estimated to be 15.8 days.