Perfil epidemiológico do trauma por quedas atendidos em serviços de urgência de Sergipe

Abstract

Among the external causes of morbidity and mortality, trauma due to fall represents the main cause of hospitalizations in the Brazilian public health system. It is a descriptive crosssectional quantitative study that aimed to trace the epidemiology profile of trauma due to falls assisted in the emergency services of Sergipe and know the effects of falls in the return to daily life activities of adult victims. It was carried out in two public hospitals of reference in trauma care in the state of Sergipe during thirty consecutive days in November 2010, through a structured interview. The sample consisted of 509 victims of falls, both genders, aged between 0.2 and 103 years. The Chi-squared test was used for the association between the variables, considering the significance level of 5%. The results revealed that victims of trauma from falls were mostly male (53.4%) between 0.2 and 12 years (33.2%), 19 to 59 years (40.7%) and 60 years or older (15.5%), single (42.6%), brown skin (48.9%), coming from the Metropolitan Area of Aracaju (83.5%) without disabilities (92.5%) or pre-existing disease (76.6%) and not using regular medication (79.8%) or alcohol (97.5%). The most frequent place of occurrence was at home (45.4%), predominantly falls from the same level (63.9%). Concerning the nature of the injury, were more common the treatments were the victim showed fracture (34.8%), contusion (27.4%) and sprains (22.0%), with discharge in the urgency ward (89.8%). There was significant association between age and gender (p<0.0001), place of fall and gender (p <0.0001), age (p <0.0001) and type of fall (p<0.0001). Most victims recovered partially and returned to daily life activities, while 28.9% of these have ceased to work, walk and play football.