Mortality rate in children caused by traffic accidents according to geographical regions : Brazil, 1997 - 2005

fatal injuries in children caused by motor vehicle accidents represent a common situation in many countries worldwide. the present study addresses the mortality rate in children as vehicle passengers in brazil, from 1997 to 2005. to evaluate mortality rates, the number of deaths was collected from the national mortality information system (sim) and the population size was obtained using the brazilian bureau census (ibge) data available at datasus. mortality rates were estimated in three-year periods and analyzed according to age groups (younger than 1 year old, 1-4 years old, 5-9 years old) and geographical regions using a 95% confidence interval. overall results showed mortality rates of 5.68, 7.32 and 6.78 (per 1,000,000) for the 1997-1999, 2000-2002 and 2003-2005 periods, respectively for the whole country. children younger than 1 year old had a mortality rate of 10.18 (per 1,000,000), which was higher than for the other age groups. for the period analyzed, the highest rates were observed for the mid-west and south regions of brazil, with rates of 13.88 and 11.47 (per 1,000,000), respectively. these results show the risk of fatal injury in children caused by motor vehicle accidents and may contribute to the establishment of educational campaigns aiming injury prevention in children as vehicle passengers.