Indicator Metadata

Not applicable

Age-standardized rate of hospitalization in a general hospital due to self-injury, per 100,000 population.

For further details, please see the General Methodology Notes.

Place of residence

Rate - per 100,000

Age-adjusted

Direct Standardization
Standard Population:
Canada 2011

Description:
Total mid-year population age 15 and older

Description:
Total number of discharges for a self-injury for patients age 15 and older
Inclusions:
1. Admission to an acute care institution (Facility Type Code = 1)

2. Self-injury is identified by the following external cause of injury codes with a diagnosis type of 9: ICD-10-CA X60 to X84

3. Age at admission 15 years and older
Exclusions:
1. Cadaveric donor or stillbirth records (Admission Category Code = R or S)

Self-injury is defined as a deliberate bodily injury that may or may not result in death. This type of injury is the result of either suicidal or self-harming behaviours, or both. Self-injury can be prevented, in many cases, by early recognition, intervention and treatment of mental illnesses. While some risk factors for self-injury are beyond the control of the health system, high rates of self-injury hospitalization can be interpreted as the result of a failure of the system to prevent self-injuries that are severe enough to require hospitalization.

Lower rates are desirable.

Using the available data sources, capturing intention is difficult. This indicator cannot distinguish whether or not the self-injury was intended to result in death (self-harming or suicidal behaviour). In addition, this indicator might provide biased estimates of the true number of hospitalizations for self-injury, due to the manner in which intent is captured in the data sources available. For example, poisoning can be coded as "unintentional"—an overdose—or "undetermined"—reflecting an uncertainty between unintentional and intentional motives. Neither unintentional nor undetermined injuries were included in this indicator, even though it is assumed that a small number of these cases were, in fact, intentional.

Health System Outcomes: Improve health status of Canadians

Not applicable

Not applicable

Canadian Institute for Health Information. National Trauma Registry Analytic Bulletin: Hospitalizations Due to Suicide Attempts and Self-Inflicted Injury in Canada, 2001-2002. Ottawa, ON: CIHI; 2004.

DAD, HMDB, NACRS, OMHRS

Type of Year:
Fiscal
First Available Year:
2010
Last Available Year:
2016

All provinces/territories

National, Province/Territory, Region, Neighbourhood Income Quintile

Every year

Web Tool:
Your Health System: In Depth
URL:
Accessing Indicator Results on Your Health System: In Depth

Not applicable

This indicator does not include cases of self-injury involving outpatient treatment in hospital emergency departments or other medical facilities or completed suicide prior to hospital admission. Thus this indicator cannot be used to estimate the prevalence of self-injury in the general population. Also not included are patients who were institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital and were self-injured during their stay but did not require admission to a general hospital. For a broader estimate of self-injury, please refer to the In Focus section of Health Indicators 2012.

Weyburn Mental Health Centre in Saskatchewan is not included in all mental health–related indicators as requested by the facility. As a result, rates for Sun Country Health Region (4701) in 2009 are not comparable with those reported in subsequent years.

Brant Community Healthcare System: Brantford General Hospital did not submit its 2009–2010 data to the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System as of the reporting deadline; therefore, it is not included in the indicator calculation. Rates for North East Local Health Integration Network (3513) are not comparable with those reported in subsequent years.

The following cases of self-injury are not included in this indicator:

1. Cases of self-injury involving outpatient treatment in hospital emergency departments or other medical facilities, or completed suicide prior to hospital admission

2. Patients who were institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital and were self-injured during their stay but did not require admission to a general hospital

Indicator results are also available in

–The Health Indicators e-Publication (http://yourhealthsystem.cihi.ca/epub/?language=en); data is updated annually starting from 2010–2011.