Gender inequalities in external cause mortality in Brazil, 2010

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the external cause mortality rate and to evaluate the probability of early death by socio-demographic characteristics and gender in Brazil. Methods: National data were obtained from the Health Ministry Mortality Information System, for a total of 241,276 male deaths and 112,386 female deaths. By way of adjustment, a direct method is used to standardize mortality rates by age, according to place of residence. Probability ratios for external cause deaths were calculated by sex, according to age, region of residence, race/color, education and marital status, using a Poisson regression. Results: The standardized external cause mortality coefficient is higher among men (183 per 100,000 inhabitants) than among women (23 per 100,000 inhabitants). The rates are higher among young men (20 to 29 years old) in all regions and decrease with age. The mortality ratio is as much as 7.6 times higher among men than among women, being higher in the North and Northeast regions. External cause mortality is much higher among men (36.4%) than among women (10.9%), with a risk 170% greater for men. The risk is also higher among younger individuals: 6.00x for men and 7.36x for women. The main kind of external cause death among men is violence, followed by land-based transport accidents, with the opposite holding true for women. Violence accounts for almost 80 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants among men, a figure 12 times higher than among women. Conclusions: Besides sex, age is the more important predictive factor of precocious death by external causes, pointing the need of many and various sectors in order to construct new identities of non violence.