[Safety measures in traffic and hospital morbimortality in craniocerebral trauma in the Distrito Federal].
BACKGROUND
The study analyzed the effectiveness of safety measures (seat belt, velocity control) in traffic. The parameters were the decrease in number and severity in head injury trauma (HIT).


METHODS
Epidemiological study, based on the evaluation of secondary data about head injury. The data were analyzed between two periods, before (1992) and after (1997) measures implementation.


RESULTS
We compared the indices (per 100.000 population) of victims in the two periods. In 1992 there were 125.5 victims, and in 1997 there were 155.8. From this total in group 1 we had 26.2 cases of HIT with 5.2 deaths, in 1997 we had 62.1 with 4.1 deaths. About severity: in the first period were 9.6 cases severe or moderate head injury, in group 2 there were 8.1 cases.


CONCLUSIONS
There was an increase in the number of victims of HIT caused by automobile accidents in this period, however the severity of the trauma showed a small decrease, possibly security measures were not efficiently in reducing the number of cases but may have been successful in reducing deaths related to this accidents.
Farage
Luciano
L
Departamento de Saúde Coletiva, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade de Brasília.
Colares
Vinicus Sardao
VS
Capp Neto
Mario
M
Moraes
Mara Cabral
MC
Barbosa
Marcia Cartaxo
MC
Branco
Joao de Abreu
Jde A
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality*; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000517:prevention & control; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D011482:Protective Devices; D012449:Safety; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices