Análise da violência contra a criança na pandemia da COVID-19 no Estado do Pará

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was characterized by several stressful events with potential to increase the chance of child abuse. The present work aims to analyze the tendency of interpersonal and self-provoked violence against children during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of Pará. Data was obtained from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN), under the management of the Department of Epidemiology of Pará Public Health Office (SESPA), in the period from 2018 to 2021, analyzing records referring to the victim (gender, age, color, education, physical disability/disorder), the occurrence (date, city, State, place, number of times the victimization occurred, type of violence and number of aggressors) and to the aggressor (relationship with the victim and use of alcohol by the aggressor). Cases with duplicity, occurrence in other states, failure to fill in more than 50% of the variables and occurrences in which it was impossible to identify the type of aggression were excluded. Statistical analysis was performed using the BioEstat 5.3 program, using descriptive statistics and, for differences between the proportions of subgroups of variables, the non-parametric Chi-square test of adherence for equal expected proportions. A p value < 0.05 (α=5.0%) was accepted as a significance level for the differences. There was a number of 4997 cases of interpersonal and self-provoked violence against children in the state of Pará between 2018 to 2021, with a higher occurrence in 2021 (33.24%) and the most affected age group was from 5 to 9 years old (44.20%), with most cases being sexual assault (65.46%). From 2019 to 2020 there was a decrease (16.54%) in occurrences, with an increase from 2020 to 2021 (49.63%). The victims were mostly girls (71.64%), brown (78.13%), with incomplete primary education (49.83%) and most of the violations were at home (92.34%), being caused mainly by acquaintances. In the records of disability/disorder, “Mental Disorder” was the most present. Most of the agressors had no suspicion of alcohol use (53.31%) and acted alone (81.55%). Revictimization between 2018 and 2021 was equivalent to 63.92%, psychological violence was the highest (146.66%). The 10 cities with the highest number of cases (68.14%) were Belém (34.30%), Ananindeua (7.46%), Altamira (5.40%), Santarém (4.96%), Parauapebas (3 .96%), Barcarena (3.30%), Tucuruí (3.00%), Thailand (2.08%), Abaetetuba (1.92%) and Moju (1.74%). Most of the violence corresponded to sexual violence, predominating in schoolchildren, girls, of brown race/color/ethnicity and with incomplete primary education. “Mental Disorder” was the most registered disability/disorder. Mostly of he aggressors were acquaintances who acted alone, at the victim's residence and with no suspicion of alcohol use. Most of the cases occurred in Belém. There was an increase of aggression reports during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected that this work will stimulate discussions and measures in the academic and professional environment for prevention and fight against child abuse in the health area, in order to promote protection and comprehensive care of this group.