Marine Safety in Victoria Report 2007-2008 (PDF, 1.3 MB, 72 pp.)

Figure 8 Rate of recreational boating-related hospital admissions per 100,000
population by age and gender, Victoria July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007
(n=223)
14
12
Rate per 100,000 population
10
8
6
4
Male
Female
2
0
0–4 5–9 10–14 15–19 20–24 25–29 30–34 35–39 40–44 45–49 50–54 55–59 60–64 65–69 70–74 75–79 80–84 85+
Age group
Source: Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED)
The major causes (mechanisms), body sites injured and the nature of injury are shown in Table
12. Falls (24%), onboard incidents (22%) and hit/struck/crush (13%) were the leading causes of admissions.
The major injury diagnosis was fracture (44%), most frequently affecting the knee/lower leg (29% of
fracture cases), head (13%) wrist/hand (12%) and thorax (10%). Dislocation/sprain/strain accounted for
13% of injury diagnoses, most commonly affecting the shoulder/upper arm (41% of dislocation/sprain/
strain injury cases). Overall, the most common specific injury was fracture of the lower leg/knee (13% of all
hospital admissions).
Fifty-nine percent of hospital admitted cases had a length of stay of less than 2 days, 32% stayed 2-7 days,
8% stayed 8-30 days and 1% (n= 2 cases) stayed more than 30 days.
Table 13 shows the length of stay in hospital by water craft/activity type.
Marine Safety in Victoria: July 2007 to June 2008 47