Hospital admissions for injuries directly attributable to extreme weather events – such as heatwaves, bushfires and storms – have increased in Australia over the past decade.
A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows 9,119 Australians were hospitalised for injuries from extreme weather from 2012-22 and 677 people died from these injuries in the decade up to 2021.
In 2021-22, there were 754 injury hospitalisations directly related to extreme weather, compared to 576 in 2011-12.
Extreme heat is responsible for most weather-related injuries. Exposure to prolonged natural heat can result in physical conditions ranging from mild heat stroke, to organ damage and death.
As Australia heads into summer with an El Niño, it’s important understand and prepare for the health risks associated with extreme weather.
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A spike every three years
Extreme weather-related hospitalisations have spiked at more than 1,000 cases every three years, with the spikes becoming progressively higher. There were:
- 1,027 injury hospitalisations in 2013–14
- 1,033 in 2016–17
- 1,108 in 2019–20.
In each of these three years, extreme heat had the biggest impact on hospital admissions and deaths.
Extreme heat accounted for 7,104 injury hospitalisations (78% of all injury hospitalisations) and 293 deaths (43% of all injury deaths) in the ten year period analysed.
In 2011-12, there were 354 injury hospitalisations directly related to extreme heat. This rose to 579 by 2021-22.
El Niño and La Niña
Over the past three decades, extreme weather events have increased in frequency and severity.
In Australia, El Niño drives a period of reduced rainfall, warmer temperatures and increased bushfire danger.
La Niña, on the other hand, is associated with above average rainfall, cooler daytime temperatures and increased chance of tropical cyclones and flood events.
Although similar numbers of heatwave-related hospitalisations occurred in El Niño and La Niña years studied, the number of injuries related to bushfires was higher in El Niño years.
During the 2019–20 bushfires, in the week beginning January 5 2020, there were 1,100 more hospitalisations than the previous five-year average, an 11% increase.
Although El Niño hasn’t directly been proved as the cause for these three spikes, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, two of the three years (2016-17 and 2019-20) were El Niño summers. And the other year (2013-14) was the warmest neutral year on record at that time.
Regional differences
Exposure to excessive natural heat was the most common cause leading to injury hospitalisation for all the mainland states and territories. From 2019 to 2022, there were 2,143 hospital admissions related to extreme heat, including:
- 717 patients from Queensland
- 410 from Victoria
- 348 from NSW
- 267 from South Australia
- 266 from Western Australia
- 73 from the Northern Territory
- 23 from the ACT
- 19 from Tasmania.
Authors: Amy Peden, NHMRC Research Fellow, School of Population Health & co-founder UNSW Beach Safety Research Group, UNSW Sydney
