Introduction
: The worldwide increase in the elderly population has highlighted the importance of accidental falls and their consequences.Objective: To perform time-trend analysis of the mortality rate from accidental falls in (1) the city of Florianópolis (2) the state of Santa Catarina and (3) Brazil.
Method
: A time-series study of data from the Sistema de Informação sobre Mortalidade ("the Mortality Information System") was performed. The variation in mortality caused by accidental falls was estimated using the joinpoint regression method, based on the International Disease Classification (ICD-10), chapter XX, codes W00 to W15 and W17 to W19, from 1997 to 2010.
Results
: It was observed that in the most recent periods (2005/2008; 2002/2008; 2003/2008), there was a significant increase in mortality rates related to accidental falls in all three regions, and that these rates increased with advancing age.
Conclusion
: Strategies to prevent accidental falls among the elderly should be aimed, mainly, at those who are 80 and over, the age in which accidental falls result in higher death rates.
Accidental Falls; Elderly; Ecological Studies; Temporal Distribution; Mortality Rate; External Causes
