Lifeline Phone on Yanghwa Bridge. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, July 1 (Korea Bizwire) – An average of 11 people died each day from poisoning in South Korea in 2023, with the overwhelming majority of cases linked to suicide, according to a government report released Sunday.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) revealed in its 2023 Discharge Injury Statistics that 3,885 deaths last year were caused by poisoning, representing 14% of all injury-related fatalities. A staggering 93.6% of those deaths were attributed to intentional self-harm.
The data, drawn from a sample of patients discharged from 250 hospitals with 100 or more beds, also showed that women accounted for 57% of the 21,935 hospitalized poisoning cases. While men were more likely to suffer from unintentional poisonings, women were more frequently involved in intentional overdoses.
Among those aged 15 to 24, nearly 90% of poisoning cases were suicide-related. The most commonly used substances were psychoactive medications, such as antiepileptics, sedatives, and sleeping pills, across all age groups. Painkillers were prevalent among younger individuals, while older adults frequently used pesticides and herbicides.
The hospitalization rate for intentional self-harm was highest among seniors aged 65 and older (62 per 100,000 people), followed by teenagers (56), adults aged 19–64 (34), and children under 13 (1).
Injuries overall remained a major public health issue. A total of 1.23 million patients were hospitalized for injuries in 2023, making up 15.6% of all hospital admissions—an average of 3,370 patients per day. The leading causes were falls (51.8%) and traffic accidents (19.9%).
Notably, fall-related hospitalizations surged nearly 50% over the past decade, while those related to traffic accidents declined more than 40%.
Older adults, especially those over 75, were the most vulnerable to serious injury from falls, with hospitalization rates nearly 16 times higher than those of children.
The average hospital stay for injury patients was 13 days—almost double that of non-injury cases.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
