Objective To understand the incidence of injury death in the elderly in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (Ningxia) and provide evidence for the prevention and control of injury in the elderly.

Methods The injury death data in the elderly aged ≥60 years old in Ningxia from 2016 to 2022 were collected from the death information registration management system of China disease prevention and control information system. Excel 2010 was used to calculate the crude mortality rate, standardized mortality rate, death cause constituent ratio, death cause rank to describe the epidemiological characteristics of injury in the elderly. Joinpoint 5.0.2 regression model was used to calculate the average annual percentage change (AAPC) for trend test.

Results From 2016 to 2022, a total of 8206 injury deaths were reported in the elderl in Ningxia, the crude mortality rate and standardized mortality rate were 133.59/100 000 and 145.06/100 000, respectrively. The crude mortality rate and standardized mortality rate were 171.39/100 000 and 183.55/100 000 in men and 97.83/100 000 and 108.50/100 000 in women. The injury mortality rate in the elderly showed an increasing trend with year (AAPC=4.43%, P＜0.05). The injury mortality rate was significantly higher in men than in women in different age groups, the differences were significant (P＜0.05). The top three causes of injurt death in the elderly were accidental fall, road traffic accident and suicide, accounting for 79.81% of the total injury deaths. The mortality rates of different types of injury were higher in men than in women. The injury mortality rate of accidental fall showed an increase trend (AAPC=15.85%, P＜0.05), the injury mortality rates of road traffic accident and suicide showed decrease trend (AAPC=−6.13%, AAPC=−5.06%, both P＜0.05). The main death cause in age group 60− years was road traffic acident, the main death cause in age group ≥75 years was accidental fall.

Conclusion The injury mortality rate of the elderly was relatively high in Ningxia, the mortality rate of injury was significantly higher in men than in women. It is necessary to strengthen the prevention and control of accidental fall, road traffic accident and suicide in the elderly. Targeted measures should be taken to reduce the incidence of injury death in the elderly according to the injury causes in different age groups.