Injuries in adults by age group and sex

In Scotland there were 1,262 deaths in 2006 and 49,199 emergency admissions in year ending March 2007 due to unintentional injury in adults aged 15 years of age and over (table 1 &table 2). However, most unintentional injuries result neither in death nor in hospital admission but are treated by GPs or as outpatients in Accident & Emergency departments.

Figure 1 shows that between the ages of 15-64 men are more likely than women to be admitted to hospital due to unintentional injury. However, this pattern changes in the age groups 65-74 and 75+ where females are more likely to be admitted due to an unintentional injury.  The total number of emergency admissions for year ending March 2007 shows 27,343 male admissions compared with 21,856 female admissions.  Please note that the denominator for the rates in the chart are based on the populations in each sex and age group.

^{Please click on the above chart for relating tables and notes.}

For both sexes, the most common cause of emergency admission for injury is falls; this is particularly noticeable within the 75+ age group for females.  In the 15-44 age group, exposure to inanimate mechanical forces (this includes being struck/contact with an object such as glass, knife, machinery etc) is a common cause of admission (table 3) but rarely causes death (table 4).  Males are far more likely than females to be admitted to hospital because of an unintentional injury due to a road traffic accident (RTA).  This is most evident in the age groups 15-24 and 25-44 with 681 and 811 males admitted as an emergency, compared with 318 and 339 female admissions respectively.  Males are approximately seven and a half times more likely to be admitted to hospital as an emergency after being injured in an assault than females (males = 4,422; females = 579).  This is particularly evident for those aged between 15 and 64.