Revista de saúde pública
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Revista de saúde pública · Aug 1997
[Accidents and acts of violence in Brazil: I--Analysis of mortality data].
External causes are an important cause of death in almost all countries. They are always the second or third in the mortality ranking, but their distribution according to type varies from country to country. Mortality due to external causes by type, gender and age, for Brazil as a whole and for state capitals specifically, is analysed. ⋯ Paulo, Curitiba, Porto Alegre, Cuiabá and the Distrito Federal. The mortality due to external causes in Brazil has become a major public health problem, especially because of homicides. It is important to emphasize that the quality of the mortality data on external causes is not the same for all capitals, because it is a question very closely related to the quality of legal information.