Despite a 20% Decrease in Injured Patients Over 10 Years... Self-Harm and Suicide Cases Actually Increase

Although the number of injury patients visiting emergency rooms due to traffic accidents and falls has decreased by about 20% over the past decade, the number of injury patients caused by self-harm and suicide has nearly doubled. In particular, the proportion of self-harm and suicide attempters among those in their teens and twenties is increasing.

Emergency room related photo [Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 8th, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced the "2022 Injury Types and Causes Statistics," which contains the results of a survey on patients who visited emergency rooms due to injuries last year. According to the survey, a total of 193,384 injury patients visited the emergency rooms of 23 hospitals last year, a 21.7% decrease compared to 2012 (246,917 patients). Last year, 37,880 patients (15.9%) were hospitalized due to injuries, and 2,613 patients (1.4%) died. Male patients accounted for 57.5%, higher than females (42.5%). By age group, the distribution was 0-9 years old 18.6%, 70 years and older 15.0%, 20-29 years old 13.2%, and 50-59 years old 12.1%, among others.

The main mechanisms of injury were falls and slips (36.8%) ranked first. Collisions (19.5%) and transport accidents (13.5%) followed.

In the case of transport accidents, the number of patients decreased by about 40% over the past 10 years (43,001 → 26,173). This was largely due to the significant reduction in the proportion of vehicle accidents, which dropped from 48.8% in 2012 to 35.8% last year. However, due to social changes, the proportion of motorcycle accidents increased from 12.3% in 2012 to 17.1% last year, and the share of new land transportation means such as electric kickboards rose from 0.3% to 7.5% during the same period.

With aging, the proportion of falls and slips continues to increase. The proportion of patients aged 60 and over rose from 23.9% in 2012 to 42.9% last year. As a result, hospitalizations and deaths due to falls and slips have steadily increased. Most falls occurred at home (45.1%), with detailed locations including living rooms (17.6%), stairs (16.2%), and bathrooms (15.3%).

The number of self-harm and suicide patients nearly doubled over the past decade. It was 5,375 in 2012 but increased to 9,813 last year. In particular, the proportion of self-harm and suicide attempters aged 10 to 20 rose sharply (30.8% in 2012 → 46.2% in 2022). In 2012, conflicts with family and friends (27.9%) were the most common reasons for self-harm and suicide attempts, but last year, psychiatric problems (44.1%) overtook as the leading cause. Regarding poisoning accidents, the number of poisoning patients aged 10 to 20 increased significantly from 1,158 in 2012 to 2,700 last year. Among poisoning injury patients, 74.5% were for self-harm or suicide purposes. The poisoning substances included therapeutic drugs (66.9%), artificial toxic substances (10.7%), gases (10.3%), and pesticides (9.5%).

Ji Young-mi, director of the KDCA, stated, “To prevent injuries caused by transport accidents, falls, and slips, it is crucial to identify the causes and risk factors.” She added, “Through the Emergency Room Injury Patient In-depth Survey, we will identify risk factors for injury occurrence and, based on this, develop and distribute safety guidelines to contribute to creating a healthy population and a safe society through injury prevention management.” The Emergency Room Injury Patient In-depth Survey has been conducted since 2006 to understand the occurrence and epidemiological characteristics of injuries and to serve as basic data for establishing and evaluating injury prevention management policies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.