Introduction:

Traffic accidents are a serious public health problem, however, their socio-economic impact has not been described in Paraguay.

Objectives:

to determine the socioeconomic impact of motorcycle accidents in victims <19 years of age in 2016.

Materials and Methods:

this was a descriptive, observational, retrospective study. All patients aged ≤19 years who were admitted to the Trauma Hospital (TH) with a history of a motorcycle accident in 2016 were included. The data and costs were obtained from the Statistics Department and the Admissions Department of the TH.

Results:

700 patients were included, all of whom were admitted to the TH due to a motorcycle accident. The average age of the patients was 15.6 ± 4.33 years. 78% (546/700) were male. Of those injured, 450 (64.2%) were drivers and 250 (35.7%) were passengers. The average age of the drivers was 17 ± 4.3 years (range 11-19 years) and that of the passengers was 12.3 ± 4.4 years (range <1-19 years). Among the drivers, only 50.4% (227/450) were of the legal age to obtain a driver's license. Only 7.7% (54/695) of the victims wore a helmet at the time of the accident. 89.2% (625/700) of patients required hospitalization stays of 2 or more days of length, of which 7.6% required PICU admission. The mean number of regular ward hospitalization days and PICU days were 11.04 days (SD 14.85 days) and 16.57 days (SD 23 days), respectively. 25.1% (176/700) had some degree of disability or long-term effects and 5.4% (38/700) died. The direct costs per hospitalization per day in the ward and in the PICU were US$ 275.4 and 737.2, respectively. The direct costs for motorcycle accidents in 2016 was US$ 2,587,179.2. The years of potential life lost (YPLL) in 2016 were 2159 years.

Conclusions:

The socioeconomic impact of motorcycle accidents represents an extremely high social cost, stemming from a preventable cause of death.

        · resumo em Espanhol     · texto em Espanhol     · Espanhol ( pdf )