Fatores demográficos e socioeconômicos associados à morbimortalidade por violência interpessoal: uma análise para a América Latina e Caribe

Abstract

Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) occupy a leader position of which it cannot be proud. The highest mortality rates due to interpersonal violence of the world persist in the region. To improve the comprehension of this issue, it was fulfilled a transnational study in order to investigate the demographic and socioeconomic factors associated to interpersonal violence. Adopting a multidisciplinary perspective, the public health approach was emphasized, with interpersonal violence has been addressed as a disease and applying some epidemiological definitions to it, in addition to extending the analysis on non-fatal cases. A panel database was built that included the mortality, incidence and lethality rates of 24 countries of the region from 2001 to 2016. Associations were examined through multivariate linear regression models of two-way fixed effects adjusted to specific trends for each country. The calculated lethality rate was the highest among regions in the world. It was found significant associations highlighting those of mortality with indicators of demography, education, work and economic activity. Concerning morbidity, incidence rates were associated with indicators of demography, work, absolute deprivation and economic activity. There were also significant associations of lethality with indicators of demography, work and economic activity. The results suggest that the aging trend of the population in the region is favorable to a relief of morbimortality due to interpersonal violence in the next decades. Public policies that raise average schooling and expand job opportunities with attractive conditions, especially to young people, have the potential to contribute to the reduction of morbimortality. Given the observation of multifactorial associations, the study corroborates the perception that adequate prevention strategies should, similarly, be multidimensional. For future investigations that aim to advance the identification of associations with interpersonal violence considering the specificities of the region, the work provides evidence on factors that may have greater relevance and predictive capacity regarding the outcomes.