Korea's injury-related medical expenses reached 5.3 trillion won ($4.9 billion) in 2021, the highest in a decade, according to a survey.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Thursday that it is publishing the 13th National Injury Statistics in collaboration with 13 other agencies to provide integrated data on injuries generated by various public organizations.
Injury refers to all physical and mental health problems caused by external risk factors, such as accidents, disasters, and poisoning.
The 13th National Injury Statistics includes statistics on deaths caused by injuries in 2021, 119 paramedic transfers, medical institution uses, school and industrial accident reports, consumer safety accident reports, and 10-year trends on their key results by category.
In 2021, about 2.96 million people experienced injuries that required treatment at hospitals and clinics, 550,000 people were transported by ambulance, and 26,147 people died from injuries according to the cause of death statistics, confirming a decrease in the number of injuries and deaths compared to 2019, the year before Covid-19.
However, according to the National Health Insurance Statistics, medical expenses for injuries amounted to 5.3 trillion won in 2021, the highest in the last 10 years, showing that injuries seriously impact health and society.
By the mechanism of injury, deaths due to traffic accidents decreased from 6,502 in 2012 to 3,624 in 2021, while deaths due to falls and slips increased from 2,104 to 2,722.
By lifecycle, two in every 100 children under 10 visit the emergency room for falls, and six in every 1,000 children and adolescents 17 and under experience child abuse.
Young adults were more likely to experience traffic accidents and work-related injuries, while older adults experienced 3.1 out of every 100 hospitalizations for falls among those 70 and older.
"The collaboration of multiple agencies for domestic damage management to analyze and discuss the various impacts of damage on health and society together is the cornerstone for effective damage prevention," KDCA Commissioner Jee Young-mee said.
The KDCA will actively utilize the national damage statistics created through these efforts to establish damage prevention management strategies and measures and strive to lay the foundation for systematic and integrated management of damage issues, Jee added.