Trend in the incidence of commuting accidents among workers in Brazil between 2009 and 2016

BACKGROUND: Commuting accidents might have serious consequences for the health of workers, in addition to considerable financial impacts on the national health system and the social security administration. OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiological profile and calculate the incidence of commuting accidents in Brazil in the period from 2009 to 2016. METHODS: Retrospective and descriptive study with time series analysis (2009-2016) based on official secondary data obtained from Social Security Statistical Yearbooks. Information on the economically active population was retrieved from the National Household Sample Survey. Annual incidence rates were calculated per 100,000 economically active population. Simple temporal linear regression analysis was performed with software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The significance level was set to p<0.05. RESULTS: The epidemiological profile of workers involved in commuting accidents corresponded to men, aged 20 to 29 and with leg/ankle fractures, which represented 24.78% of the total population of involved workers. The incidence of commuting accidents increased from 88.17 to 105.88 in the analyzed period, which represents an variation rate of 20.08% (R(2)=0.715; p=0.008). CONCLUSION: The detected rise in the incidence and number of commuting accidents point to the need for the government to formulate prevention plans targeting high-risk groups.