Background Various adverse health problems can occur in adolescence and adolescent health problems are important health problems. In this study, we decided to apply the injury pyramid method in order to intuitively judge the severity of injuries by type and intention.

Methods Incident rate, admission rate, and mortality rate of adolescent injuries were calculated in ED based injury surveillance, National hospital discharge surveillance, and National Mortality database. The ED based injury incident rate was calculated by applying the extrapolation index method. We calculated the injury pyramid rate by applying the weight for each calculated rate.

Outcomes The mortality rate due to injuries in adolescents was 10 per 1 00 000 population. The admission rate was 1624 per 1 00 000 population and the ED based injury incidence was 4923 per 1 00 000 population. The pyramid ratio was 1: 162: 492. The pyramid ratio of intentional injury was 1: 29: 60. Especially, the pyramid ratio of suicide/self injury was 1: 7: 15, which showed a steep pyramid shape and a high mortality rate. The pyramid ratio of the transport accidents is 1: 195: 341, which shows a gentle pyramid shape, although the mortality rate is not high. The pyramid ratio of the bicycle accident injuryd was 1: 101: 431, and the pyramid ratio of the injury related motorbike accident was 1: 35: 42. Bike injuries were larger than motorcycle injuries, while motorcycle injuries had a higher mortality rate.

Conclusions Through the injury pyramid, we could intuitively observe that the severity of the injury was different by type and intention. Based on this, it is thought that it will be helpful in development of injury prevention education program and policy.