"Two Out of Five Emergency Room Injury Patients Hurt by Falls or Slips"

KDCA Publishes 2025 Statistics on Injury Types and Causes

More Than Half of Hospitalized Patients Are Aged 60 and Older

Poisoning Rate Among Teens and People in Their Twenties Doubles Over Ten Years

Two out of every five injury patients visiting emergency rooms were found to have been hurt due to falls or slips. As a result of population aging, the proportion of injury patients aged 80 and older has nearly tripled over a decade, while among poisoning patients, the share of those in their teens and twenties has increased sharply.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on August 26, the agency published the "2025 Injury Types and Causes Statistics." This report is based on in-depth emergency room injury patient surveys conducted at 29 medical centers nationwide.

Visitors are waiting to receive treatment at the emergency medical center of a hospital in Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang

Last year, 98,615 injury patients visited the emergency rooms of hospitals participating in the survey. Among them, 23.8% were hospitalized, and 2.3% died. Males accounted for 56.0% of all patients.

By age, those in their 70s made up 9.9% and those aged 80 or older accounted for 9.5%, meaning that seniors aged 70 and over comprised 19.4% of the total. Children under 10 represented a relatively high proportion as well, at 17.2%. In particular, compared to 2015, the proportion of patients under 10 fell from 24.8% to 17.2%, while the share of those in their 70s rose from 5.7% to 9.9%, and those aged 80 or older jumped from 3.2% to 9.5%. The proportion of patients over 80 has approximately tripled over the past decade.

Severe injuries were especially pronounced among seniors. Of injury patients admitted to the hospital via the emergency room, 52.9% were aged 60 and above, and among those who died, people aged 80 and older accounted for the highest share at 22.6%.

Among the causes of injury, falls and slips were the most common at 40.0%, followed by traffic accidents at 15.5% and blunt trauma at 14.8%. The proportion of falls and slips has steadily increased over the past 10 years from 29.6% in 2015.

There were 10,419 patients injured by falls, with those under the age of 10 comprising 45.4% of that group. Most incidents occurred at home, particularly in bedrooms and living rooms. In contrast, among the 29,065 patients injured by slips, more than half (50.4%) were aged 60 or older. In particular, patients aged 80 and older accounted for 33.1% of slip-related hospital admissions and 42.5% of slip-related deaths. Slips also most commonly occurred at home, most frequently in the living room, followed by the bathroom, and then the bedroom.

There were 6,816 poisoning patients, 60.5% of whom were female. Of all poising cases, 58.5% were due to suicide attempts, and among the substances involved, therapeutic medications accounted for the largest proportion at 66.7%. The proportion involving therapeutic drugs rose sharply from 44.9% in 2015, while poisonings from gas and agricultural chemicals decreased.

Notably, the share of poisoning patients in their teens and twenties doubled from 16.9% in 2015 to 33.9% last year. Among teenagers, the figure increased about 2.8 times from 5.6% to 15.8% over the same period.

There was also a significant difference in mortality rates depending on the use of protective gear. The fatality rate for those not wearing car seat belts was 3.9%, roughly double the rate for those who did wear seat belts (1.9%). Among motorcycle riders, those not wearing helmets had a fatality rate of 10.4%, nearly three times higher than those who wore helmets (3.5%).

Im Seungkwan, Commissioner of KDCA, stated, "There are age-specific injury patterns, such as falls among the elderly and poisoning injuries among the younger generation. Accurately identifying these characteristics is the starting point for prevention," adding, "We will actively promote effective injury prevention and control policies based on scientific evidence."

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