Estimate of physical sequelae in victims of road traffic accidents hospitalized in the Public Health System.

Abstract

To describe the profile of the victims of road accidents presenting physical sequelae, according to the criteria established by researchers and analyze the trends in hospitalization for this cause in Brazil, from 2000 to 2013. An ecological time-series study was performed using the data from the Hospital Information System of the National Health System (SUS). Trends in hospitalization were estimated using Prais-Winstein regression. During this period, a total of 1,747,191 hospitalizations for traffic accidents were registered; 410,448 were victims with physical sequelae. About 77.7% of them were male subjects, 26.5% belonged to the age group of 20 - 29 years, 46.4% lived in Southeast Brazil, 44.0% were pedestrians, and 31.1% were motorcyclists. In total, 51,189 cases were "confirmed" sequelae (12.5%), and pedestrians accounted for 43.8% of cases. There were 359,259 hospitalizations for the diagnosis of "possible" sequelae, and motorcyclists accounted for 43.3% of these cases. There was a trend of stability for all the patients with confirmed and possible sequelae, but there was a significant rise in hospitalization rates owing to confirmed sequelae among the men in North and Central-West regions. The hospitalizations associated with physical sequelae were responsible for about one-fourth of the hospitalizations in the Hospital Information System in the studied period. Most events involved men, young adults, residents in Southeast Brazil, and pedestrians. Hospitalization rates for traffic accidents associated with physical sequelae were stable in Brazil and regions, but a significant increase was observed for confirmed sequelae among men in the North and Central-West regions.