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Abstract
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INTRODUCTION: Despite promising reductions in mortality from infectious diseases, premature death is a still major public health problem in Brazil. However, little is known about which diseases and injury mechanisms are the main causes of premature death. This paper aimed to detail trends in leading causes of death among children and adolescents in Brazil.
METHODS: Data were extracted from medical death certificates from the Brazilian Mortality Information System for children and adolescents aged 1 to 19 years for 2000 to 2020. The 10 leading causes of death for children and adolescents were defined using primary cause of death codes, grouped by death for diseases and mechanism for injury, according to the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision. All analyses were completed in 2022.
RESULTS: From 2000 through to 2020, there was a total of 772,729 child and adolescent deaths in Brazil. Despite an overall 34% reduction in child and adolescent mortality from 2000 to 2020, improvements were less pronounced among injury-related deaths than for communicable diseases. As a result, by 2020 over of half of deaths were from injury-related causes. Firearm-related injury was by far the leading cause, accounting for 21% of all deaths. There was a 38% reduction in firearm deaths in the last 4 years against a previously increasing trend, and homicide accounted for over 90% of all firearm deaths since suicide by firearm was rare.
CONCLUSIONS: Injury-related deaths among children and adolescents are a growing concern in Brazil, and firearms are the current leading cause of child and adolescent death.
Language: en |