Abstract
ABSTRACTOBJECTIVE To estimate the potential years of life lost by road traffic injuries three years after the beginning of the Decade of Action for Traffic Safety.METHODS We analyzed the data of the Sistema de Informações sobre Mortalidade (SIM – Mortality Information System) related to road traffic injuries, in 2013. We estimated the crude and standardized mortality rates for Brazil and geographic regions. We calculated, for the Country, the proportional mortality according to age groups, education level, race/skin color, and type or quality of the victim while user of the public highway. We estimated the potential years of life lost according to sex.RESULTS The mortality rate in 2013 was of 21.0 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants for the Country. The Midwest region presented the highest rate (29.9 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants). Most of the deaths by road traffic injuries took place with males (34.9 deaths per 100,000 males). More than half of the people who have died because of road traffic injuries were of black race/skin color, young adults (24.2%), individuals with low schooling (24.0%), and motorcyclists (28.5%). The mortality rate in the triennium 2011-2013 decreased 4.1%, but increased among motorcyclists. Across the Country, more than a million of potential years of life were lost, in 2013, because of road traffic injuries, especially in the age group of 20 to 29 years.CONCLUSIONS The impact of the high mortality rate is of over a million of potential years of life lost by road traffic injuries, especially among adults in productive age (early mortality), in only one year, representing extreme social cost arising from a cause of death that could be prevented. Despite the reduction of mortality by road traffic injuries from 2011 to 2013, the mortality rates increased among motorcyclists.
Highlights
The annual number of deaths resulting from road traffic injuries (RTI) estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 1.24 million people, mostly living in middle-income countriesa
More than half of the people who have died because of road traffic injuries were of black race/skin color, young adults (24.2%), individuals with low schooling (24.0%), and motorcyclists (28.5%)
The impact of the high mortality rate is of over a million of potential years of life lost by road traffic injuries, especially among adults in productive age, in only one year, representing extreme social cost arising from a cause of death that could be prevented
Summary
The annual number of deaths resulting from road traffic injuries (RTI) estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 1.24 million people, mostly living in middle-income countriesa. The RTI are among the 10 leading causes of death in the world according to data from the WHO for 2012b. In 2007, RTI deaths accounted for 29.3% of mortality by external causes and, along with murders, account for about 2/3 of the external causes deaths in Brazil[13]. In Brazil, considering the period from 1998 – year of implantation of the Brazilian Traffic Code – to 2008, the number of deaths by RTI increased 121.0% (3,736 and 8,093 deaths, respectively). The mortality rate by RTI in the Country increased between the years 2000 and 2010, ranging from 18 to 22.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants[11]. Alcohol is responsible for about one third of the deaths in traffic, being the most important determinant for the severity of injuries and fatality of accidents[9]
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