Profile and costs of occupational accidents reported and treated at a university hospital in Pernambuco

Accidents at work are considered preventable in many situations and can cause injuries to the worker and burden the public health system and social security systems.

To describe the profile and costs of occupational accidents notified and treated at a university hospital in the state of Pernambuco from 2018 to 2021.

Exploratory, ex post facto, quantitative study carried out using data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação). Descriptive and inferential analyzes and Fisher's exact test were performed, in addition to Poisson regression.

There were 603 reported accidents at work, with a mean age of 38.2 years, predominance in men (82.3%), brown race (84.2%), unknown schooling (66%) and urban residence (69.2%). Most incidents occurred in 2020 (n = 185; 27.8%), in self-employed workers (39.2%), typical (55.9%), reaching upper limbs (25.4%). It was identified that being over 37 years of age raises 95% (95%CI 0.91-0.99) the prevalence of occupational accidents in men. Being self-employed increases the prevalence of this event by 92% (95%CI 0.87-0.96; p < 0.001) and not having the employment status completed 80% (95%CI 0.73-0.87; p < 0.001). Regarding the type of accident, commuting accidents increase by 1.09 times (95%CI 1.05-1.14; p < 0.001) the prevalence of occurrences in males.

The results indicate that the search for specific strategies to prevent accidents and, in effect, preserve the health and safety of workers and reduce government spending is relevant.