Mortality, morbidity & health care costs of injury in the Northern Territory, 1991-2001

Abstract

In Australia, injury is a leading cause of mortality and permanent disability, including the principal cause of death in people under 45 years of age. Throughout the 1990s, injury was annually responsible for more than 7000 deaths, 400,000 hospitalisations and direct medical costs of $2.6 billion according to estimates by the National Health and Medical Research Council.1 For the Northern Territory previous reports have recorded injury rates that are generally higher than those in other Australian states. The starkest indicator of injury is that of the injury death rate which for the Northern Territory (NT) has been previously reported for 1997, as 88 deaths per l 00,000 of population which was more than twice the national rate of 41 deaths per 100,000. This report is the first full report on injury in the NT and provides a comprehensive summary of injury across the dimensions of mortality, public hospital admissions, presentations in Emergency Departments and importantly in the NT, interstate hospital transfers for the treatment of injury. The report also provides estimates for the health care costs of injury in the Northern Territory.