Emergency care provided to elderly individuals due to external causes in a public hospital of Sergipe, Brazil
Abstract
Introduction: External causes are a serious challenge faced by health authorities in Brazil, mainly in case of injuries resulting from traffic accidents, physical assaults and falls. Objective: The aims of the current article are to estimate the incidence of traffic accidents and physical violence, as well as to investigate the profile of elderly individuals treated in the emergency care unit of a public hospital due to external causes in 2015. Methods: Retrospective, quantitative, cross-sectional epidemiological study. Data were collected in all medical records that mentioned external causes as the main cause of health care provided to individuals in the age group 60 years or older, based on information available in Emergency Care Records. Epi Info software was used for statistical analysis and QGIS software was used to analyze the spatial distribution of cases. Results: Of the 10,584 elderly individuals treated in the investigated public hospital, 13.30% were affected by external causes, 81% presented trauma due to falls, 16.4% suffered traffic accidents and 2.6% were victims of physical violence. Most patients were women (55.68%) in the age group 60-69 years. Trauma was the most prevalent injury type (40.58%); it was followed by fracture (20.82%) and sprain / contusion (19.22%). Traffic accidents were associated with male sex and younger age group, whereas falls were associated with female sex and older age group. Conclusion: Brazil presents high rate of preventable accidents. Health prevention and promotion measures can help reducing rates of affections resulting from external causes, as well as governmental cost with the public health sector.
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