Impacto da Lei Seca na mortalidade por acidentes de trânsito terrestre no Estado de Santa Catarina

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of law against drinking and driving on mortality from traffic accidents in Santa Catarina. Method: Ecological study, which assessed mortality from traffic accidents from 2000 to 2016, in the 295 municipalities of the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Population data were obtained through DATASUS. Data were divided into a period before the event studied (2000 to 2007) and a later one (2009 to 2016), calculating the mortality rate in each period and the difference between them, and then using spatial autocorrelation of the product of the deviations from the average according to the victim's place of residence. Results: The deaths resulting from land traffic accidents in the state of Santa Catarina totaled 28,528 cases. In the first period, a total of 14,161 (49.64%) deaths occurred. In the second period, there were 14,367 (50.36%) deaths. These values represent an increase in the number of deaths per municipality of 0.72 percentage point, equivalent to 1.45% increase. Considering the death rate, we have 31.12 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants in the first period and 27.54 in the second period, which represents a reduction of 11%. When analyzing changes in mortality between the study periods, 94 municipalities were classified as “major improvement”, 39 classified as “moderate improvement”, 32 classified as “mild improvement”, 19 classified as “mild improvement”, 17 classified as “moderate improvement”, and 94 classified as “major improvement”. Conclusion: In the analysis of the study it was possible to identify that even with the overall reduction in the mortality rate in Santa Catarina when the law against drinking and driving came into effect, there was an increase in traffic accident rates in several municipalities of the state.