Incidência de acidentes automobilísticos no SAMU durante a pandemia de covid-19

Abstract

SAMU is a free pre-hospital care service provided to the population by the SUS (Brazilian Public Health System), activated by calling 192 and operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, providing support for various types of life-threatening situations (health emergencies and urgent cases). The world recently faced a pandemic, COVID-19, which made isolation and social distancing necessary to prevent the spread of the virus. The objective of this study was to determine the incidence of car accidents in the SAMU (Mobile Emergency Care Service) during the period from 2020 to 2023, years that marked the characterization and end, according to the WHO, of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that isolation did have an effect on the number of accidents, but it was a very rapid effect, limited to only a few months of 2020. Between March, the month in which the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and April, there was a 56.6% drop in accident rates, clearly demonstrating the primary effect that the WHO declaration and the beginning of social isolation had on reducing the traffic of people and vehicles. Accident numbers in 2020 remained constant between May and July, always around 30 occurrences, until they dropped again in August to 19. Between September and October, the numbers fluctuated, but never exceeded 50 accidents, until November (55) and December (56) arrived and, for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, the monthly accident numbers surpassed the peak of this index in the pre-pandemic period, truly showing that the influence of social isolation on traffic had ended. Regarding the epidemiology of the cases, it was noted that the majority of general victims attended by SAMU (Mobile Emergency Care Service) in these years were men, and that the majority of victims were 60 years of age or older, always followed by victims aged 20-39 and 40-59, in that order, revealing two constants that were repeated in all the years covered in the research. In 2020, the number of men assisted was 54.9% and women 45.1%, a statistic very similar to that of 2021 (54.5% men and 45.5% women). In 2022, the year with the greatest balance between the number of men and women assisted among the years studied, 52.7% of the victims were men and 47.3% women, and 2023, the last year studied, had 55% male victims and 45% female victims, proving the existence of an epidemiological constant in the annual services provided by SAMU. In the etiology of traffic accidents that occurred during this time interval, a huge disparity was observed between the numbers, with the constant being that in all years the number of accidents caused by motorcycles was greater than the number of accidents caused by four-wheeled vehicles. In fact, it was more than 10 times greater each year (11.6 times in 2020, 12.7 times in 2021, 15.6 times in 2022; and 15.9 times in 2023, the year with the greatest mathematical difference in this statistic). It is concluded that social isolation did not have a lasting influence on the analyzed data and that the majority of SAMU (Mobile Emergency Care Service) users are men and people aged 60 or older. Finally, it was also concluded that the rates of accidents caused by motorcycles were higher than the number of accidents caused by four-wheeled vehicles.