Overexertion

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Injuries from overexertion are typically the result of physical stress or overuse of the body. This can include from lifting heavy objects, repetitive movements, motion sickness, or lack of food or water.

Overexertion and related injuries caused:

This represents around 2% of injury hospitalisations.

In males, the 25-44 age group had the highest risk, while in females, the 65 and over group had the highest risk.

Injuries from overexertion are represented by the ICD external cause codes X50–57. Overexertion and strenuous or repetitive movements account for almost all hospitalisations in this group.

This chapter summarises data on unintentional injuries only. Intentional injuries and deaths are included under Self-harm injuries and suicide or Assault and homicide.

Deaths from overexertion injuries are rare, and are not discussed in detail below.

Causes of hospitalisation

In 2021–22, almost all hospitalisations in this group were caused by overexertion and strenuous or repetitive movements (Table 1).

Notes

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
2. Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
3. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes (ACCD 2019).

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Data tables B23–24.

Trends over time

Over the period from 2017–18 to 2021–22, the age-standardised rate of injury hospitalisations due to overexertion decreased by an annual average of 4.2%. From 2012–13 to 2016–17 there was an average annual increase of 4.3% (Figure 1).

There is a break in the time series for hospitalisations between 2016–17 and 2017–18, due to a change in data collection methods (see the Technical notes for details).

Figure 1: Overexertion injury hospitalisations, by sex and year

For more detail, see Data tables C1–3 and F1–4.

Seasonal differences

Hospitalisations for overexertion injuries remain relatively steady over the year, with a dip over December and January.

There were large dips in March 2020 and December to January 2021–22, which could both be related to the challenges to the hospital system created by COVID-19 (Figure 2).

The interactive display illustrates other seasonal differences in injury hospitalisations.

Figure 2: Seasonal differences in overexertion injury hospitalisations, 2019–20 to 2021–22

Notes
1. Admission counts have been standardised into two 15-day periods per month.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Age and sex differences

Rates of hospitalisation from overexertion injuries differ between males and females over the life-stages (Figure 3). In 2021–22:

• 58% of hospitalisations were for males
• for males, the highest rate was in the 25–44 age group
• for females, the highest rate was for those aged 65 and over. This is the only age group where females had higher rates of overexertion injuries than males.
• the age-standardised rates of overexertion hospitalisations were 61 cases per 100,000 males, and 41 per 100,000 females.

Figure 3: Overexertion injury hospitalisations, by age group and sex, 2021–22

For more detail, see Data tables A1–3 and D1–3.

Severity

There are many ways that the severity, or seriousness, of an injury can be assessed. Some of the ways to measure the severity of hospitalised injuries are:

• number of days in hospital
• time in an intensive care unit (ICU)
• time on a ventilator
• in-hospital deaths.

Overexertion injuries appear to be less severe than the average for all hospitalised injuries in 2021–22 (Table 2).

Note: Average number of days in hospital (length of stay) includes admissions that are transfers from one hospital to another or transfers from one admitted care type to another within the same hospital, except where care involves rehabilitation procedures.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Data tables A13–15.

Nature of injuries sustained

In 2021–22, the hip and lower limb was the body area most often identified as the main site of injury in overexertion hospitalisations (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Overexertion hospitalisations, by main body part injured, 2021–22

Notes

1. Main body part refers to the principal reason for hospitalisation.
2. ‘Trunk’ includes thorax, abdomen, lower back, lumbar spine & pelvis.
3. Number and percentage of injuries classified as Other, multiple, and incompletely specified body regions and Injuries not described in terms of body region not shown—see Data table A11.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Data table A11.

Soft-tissue injury was the most common type of injury for people who were hospitalised due to overexertion. This type of injury can include repetitive strain injury. The rate of hospitalisations for soft-tissue injuries in males was about twice the rate for females (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Overexertion hospitalisations, by type of injury, 2021–22

For more detail, see Data table A10.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

In 2021–22, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

• there were over 610 hospitalisations (Table 3) and fewer than 5 deaths due to overexertion
• males were 1.4 times as likely as females to be hospitalised
• hospitalisation rates were highest among people aged 25–44 (Figure 5).

Note: Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

In 2021–22, Indigenous Australians, compared with non-Indigenous Australians, were 1.6 times as likely to be hospitalised due to overexertion (Table 4).

Notes

1. Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.
2. ‘Non-Indigenous Australians’ excludes cases where Indigenous status is missing or not stated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

The age group with the highest rate of overexertion hospitalisations among Indigenous Australians was the 25–44 year-olds (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Overexertion injury hospitalisations, by Indigenous status, by age group and sex, 2021–22

For more detail, see Data tables A4–A6 and D4–D8.

Remoteness

In 2021–22 males living in Remote areas had the highest rates of hospitalisation due to overexertion (Table 5).

Note: Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

The highest age-specific rate of overexertion hospitalisation cases was among the 15–24 age group living in Remote areas of Australia. (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Overexertion injury hospitalisations, by remoteness, by age group and sex, 2021–22

For more detail, see Data tables A7–A9 and D9–10.

For information on how the statistics were calculated by remoteness, see the technical notes.

Data details

Technical notes: how the data were calculated

Data tables: download the full tables

Glossary

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