U.S. Emergency Department Injury Visits by Sex, Age, and Cause

NCHS data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey details initial injury-related visits to U.S. hospital emergency departments. The dataset includes estimates categorized by sex, age, and the intent and mechanism of injury. Data for 2017 and later years were revised in December 2021 to correct programming errors.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in ESTIMATE of injury visits over YEAR_NUM for specific AGE groups.
• Compare injury visit rates by SEX using the STUB_LABEL and STUB_NAME columns.
• Investigate the distribution of injury mechanisms and intent (e.g., accidental falls) across different AGE_NUM categories.
• Examine annual changes in healthcare utilization for injuries post-2017 ICD-10-CM coding transition using YEAR and ESTIMATE.

Strengths

• Data revised in December 2021 for accuracy on 2017-2018 estimates.
• Categorization includes multiple dimensions: sex, age, intent, and mechanism of injury.

Limitations

• Data from 2017 onward uses a different injury definition (ICD-10-CM) and should not be compared to prior years.
• Data for the transition year 2016 is not included.
• Sample size and row count are unknown.

Provenance

Source

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Collection Method

Survey data from hospital emergency departments.

Time Range

Annual data, with noted changes from 2017 reporting period onward.

Freshness

Dataset last updated on platform in April 2025.

Geography

United States.