Prevalência de trauma facial em vítimas de acidente de transporte terrestre e fatores associados

Abstract

The terrestrial transport accidents (TTA) are considered a serious public health problem worldwide, as they cause deaths, injuries and disabilities, including in this segment the facial trauma. Given the importance assumed by the TTA on these traumas, this study aims at evaluating the prevalence and factors associated with its occurrence on the victims of such violence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cross-sectional retrospective study performed at nucleus of forensic medicine and dentistry from January 2008 to December 2011. Data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences including the frequency distribution and descriptive analysis of socioeconomic factors, injuries and TTA characteristics, and analytical analysis by using the chi-square test and Poisson logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 2,570 medical and dental records were evaluated. The mean age of victims was 34.38 years (SD = 15.00 years), and the men to women ratio of 3.5:1. Most did not have a partner (56.5%) had up to 8 years of education (55.7%), was not employed (52.1%) and resided in the Metropolitan region (51.6). Regarding the information about the accident: motorcycle accidents were prevalent (67.8%) occurred during the day (55.8%) and on weekdays (62.9%). The facial injuries occurred in 421 victims (16.4%), being facial multiple trauma the most prevalent (44.3%), as well as the soft tissue injuries (57.5%). The body region most affected was the lower limb (37.6%) followed by associated trauma (28.9%). A statistically significant association was found between the type of trauma (facial/body) and age, residence, marital status, education, victim s occupation, type of accident, day of week and time of day. The final multivariate model of hierarchical Poisson regression was composed of four co-variables: housing, education, type of accident and time of day. CONCLUSION: The study showed factors associated with facial trauma, enabling the targeting of public health policies in order to prevent and reduce the prevalence of facial trauma resulted from terrestrial transport accidents, especially in those high-risk groups.