Aspectos epidemiológicos dos óbitos de crianças por afogamento nas regiões brasileiras

Abstract

Introduction: Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death in children, among external causes, and the one that has the greatest family, social and economic impact. It is a public health problem, in which prevention is the main tool. Objectives: Describing the epidemiological profile of children from 0 to 11 years old who were victims of drowning and accidental submersion that evolved to death in the Brazilian regions and capitals from 2010 to 2017. Methodology: Ecological study whose data were collected from the Mortality Information System (SIM) provided by the IT Department of the Unified Health System (Datasus). The study variables were: age, sex, race/color, year of death (2010 to 2017), place of death, region of occurrence and the primary cause of death classified in ICD-10, with alpha numeric code W65 to W74. The variables were grouped by Brazilian Regions. Results: Drowning as the primary cause of death in children in Brazil represented 19.3% (6,296) of all deaths from external causes, with the highest proportion (32.8%) observed in the Northern Region. The highest proportion of drowning deaths occurred in the state capitals was observed in the Midwest Region (25.1%), followed by the North Region (19.3%). It was observed that deaths from drowning children tend to increase in the Midwest and South regions and to decrease in the North, Northeast and Southeast regions. The predominant age group of deaths was between 0 and 2 years of age (2,405), mainly in the North, Midwest, South and Southeast. In the Northeast, there was superiority in the age group from 6 to 11 years (919), with the highest absolute number of drowning deaths in children. There was a predominance in males (4,337) in all Brazilian regions, with higher occurrence in the Northeast. Brown race/color was predominant in all regions except the Southern region. The mortality rate was higher in children aged from 0 to 2 years (163) in all regions. The main day of the week for all regions was Sunday, with a predominance of afternoon time. As for the place of occurrence, excluding the unspecified place of occurrence (615), the drowning of children in natural waters (422) stood out in all regions, followed by residence, for the North and Northeast regions and pool in the Center regions. West, South and Southeast. In the North and Northeast regions, the most frequent age range in natural waters is from 6 to 11 years and in residence from 0 to 2 years. While in the South, Southeast and Midwest, the occurrence of drowning in natural waters predominated, with the most frequent age range between 6 and 11 years, followed by swimming pool, aged between 0 and 2 years. Conclusion: We emphasize the importance of the results obtained for the creation of drowning prevention strategies in children, contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of families and society as a whole.