Abstract
This cross-sectional study aimed to analyze the cases of falls in urgent and emergency care services of 24 Brazilian capitals and the Federal District participating in the 2014 VIVA Survey. We sought to describe the epidemiological profile of victims, characterizing the event and the severity of injuries it caused and to perform an association study. We calculated the simple and relative frequencies of variables and performed multivariate logistic regression analysis for complex sample data in order to verify associations between falls and selected variables. Fall victims profile results show a predominance of males, age groups 0-9years and 20-39 years and brown skin. Outcomes show that 56% fell from own height, public road was the most frequent place of falls and 92.7% of people receiving care for falls suffered some kind of injury, of which most common were bruises, sprain and strains, followed by cut/laceration. In the final model, we were able to associate fall with gender, age, education, disability and place of the event. The likelihood of falls at school is 14% higher than at home, but falls in recreation areas, public roads and other places are less likely than at home.
Key words
Fall; Health survey; Urgent and emergency care; Logistic regression