Teenage girls increasingly hurting themselves, says CIHI report

Girls are four times more likely to be hospitalized for self-harm than boys. That’s according to new information released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) found a notable difference between the rate of self-harm-related hospitalizations for girls and boys. While the rate for girls jumped from 78 to 164 per 100,000 girls — an increase of 110 per cent — the rate for boys increased by 35 per cent, from 23 to 32 per 100,000.

The findings were released by CIHI Tuesday in a major report on intentional injuries among children in Canada. The report did not include Quebec data.

The data revealed that out of the 17,500 Canadian children who were hospitalized for injuries in 2013-14, about 3,000 of those hospitalizations were for intentional injury, with 2,500 cases a result of self-harm and 500 cases a result of injury caused by others. And again the numbers indicated that girls were more likely to intentionally harm themselves than boys.

CIHI found that girls were four times more likely to be hospitalized for self-harm-related injuries than boys. Out of the 2,500 children aged 10 to 17 hospitalized last year as a result of self-harm, 80 per cent were girls.

Agencies/Canadajournal