Hospital admissions for firearm-related injury (all ages)

July 2008

There were 532 admissions to hospital for firearm-related injury in Victoria over the seven-year period from January 1999 to December 2005, excluding deaths in hospital. This represents an average of 76 cases each year, including both unintentional incidents and intentional injury such as assault or attempted suicide. The ratio of unintentional to intentional cases was approximately 5:4.

Table 1: Firearm related hospital admissions by year and intent

Source: VAED Jan '99 - Dec '05

Age: The bulk of cases (90%) occurred in the age range of 15-49 years. Firearm-related hospital admissions peaked in 30 to 34 year olds, closely followed by 25-29 year olds and 20-24 year olds.

All cases in the 5-9 and 10-14 year age groups were due to unintentional incidents, compared to the average of 50% across all other age groups. While the number of cases among 10-14 year olds was substantially lower overall compared to adult age groups, this is largely due to the absence of any intentional assault or self harm cases in this age group. The frequency of unintentional firearm injury cases in 10-14 year olds is comparable to the frequency among older age groups.

Source: VAED Jan '99 - Dec '05
Figure 1: Number of firearm related admission cases and intent by age group

Gender: Males were much more frequently involved than females. Overall, 89% of cases were male. The gender split is similar in unintentional injury (88% male), intentional assault (91% male) and intentional self harm (87% male).

Intent: Overall, one-half of firearm-related hospitalisations were due to unintentional injury, i.e. shooting accidents (50%). The remainder were due to intentional injury, either self harm (13%) or assault (9%). In 2% of cases the intent could not be determined.

Self harm was highest among 15 to 24 year olds and 35 to 44 year olds (accounting for 25% of cases each), yet relatively low for the age range between these two groups, i.e. 25-34 year olds (11%). Intentional assault victims were typically younger men. While 45% of injury among 30-34 years olds was due to intentional assaults, the figure was less than 10% of those under 15 or over 65.

Injury type: Overall the most common main injury types were ‘open wound', accounting for 46% of cases, and ‘fracture', accounting for 21%. Injury to internal organs (8%), internal head injury (6%), injury to nerves or spinal cord (4%) and bruises or abrasions (4%) were less common.

Body region: The four main regions of the body were affected to a similar degree. The lower limb was most affected (30% of cases), followed by the head, face or neck (26%), the upper limb (25%) and the trunk (17%).

For those cases that were unintentional, most injury was to the lower (37%) or upper limb (31%), while injury to the trunk was relatively limited (10%). Among intentional assault cases, the trunk (43%) and the lower extremity (41%) were the site of most injury. Of the intentional self harm cases, the head/face/neck was the main body region injured (69%).

Location: Overall 42% of firearm injury cases did not specify a place of occurrence. This is probably due in part to the fact that there is no specific location category for the bush or wilderness settings where many shooting incidents would take place.

Of the 306 cases where a location was specified, the most common location was the home (41%). An additional 18% occurred on a road, street or highway, and 10% in a ‘trade or service area' such as a shop or restaurant. Farms and schools/public buildings accounted for 4% each. Other specified locations accounted for the remaining 23%.

When analysed separately, the primary places of occurrence for unintentional injury were the home (39%) or ‘other specified location' (31%). Intentional assaults most commonly occurred on a road, street or highway (31%), in the home (30%), or at a trade or service area (20%). The majority of intentional self harm incidents occurred in the home (78%).

Discharge status: Persons admitted to Victorian hospitals for firearms injuries were discharged home in 79% of cases and transferred to an acute hospital or extended care facility in 18% of cases. 4% left the hospital on their own accord against medical advice.

Further information: This fact sheet concerns firearm related injury not leading to death. For further information on firearm related deaths in Australia , access an article by MUARC in the journal “Injury Prevention” volume 10 pages 280-286, published in 2004.

Data source: Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED) January 1999 to December 2005 (6 years)

Search Strategy: Cases in the VAED were selected if the cause code was ‘W32: Handgun discharge', ‘W34: Discharge from other firearms', ‘X72: Intentional self harm by handgun discharge', ‘X74: Intentional self harm by other firearm discharge', ‘X93: Assault by handgun discharge' or ‘X95: Assault by other firearm discharge'. Re-admissions within 30 days were excluded to avoid double counting. Cases resulting in death were excluded.