Incidence of death due to violent causes among underage individuals in Cuiabá City, Brazil, from 2015 to 2016

Abstract

Introduction: Death profile in children younger than 18 years in Brazil has considerably changed after the country’s urbanization, since population increase was followed by intense criminality and individuals got more vulnerable to violence. Objective: The main objective of the current study is to analyze the frequency and features of violent deaths among children younger than 18 years, with emphasis on prevalent causes of death in general and in specific groups. Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive retrospective epidemiological study was carried out at the Medical Examiner’s Office (IML - Instituto Médico Legal) in Cuiabá City, Mato Grosso State, in 2015 and 2016. Results: Results have shown that external causes, mainly traffic accidents and gunshot wounds, accounted for most death cases. Male individuals in the age group 13-18 years recorded the highest death rates. Conclusion: Increased number of deaths due to violent causes can be explained by the fact that young individuals are increasingly exposed to crime events , such as physical assaults, gunshots and accidents, early in life. Non-white male individuals in the age group 13-to-18 years are mostly vulnerable to these causes of death. In addition to violence, children and adolescents have been victims of accidents, mainly of traffic accidents, which accounted for 21.5% of causes of death