Objective

To estimate the burden of disease for external causes of injury in the department of Casanare during the 2008-2012 period.

Materials and Methods

Retrospective descriptive study on the records of the events grouped as external causes of injury notified to SIVIGILA and the events reported to the Epidemiological Surveillance System of External Causes (SIVELCE). Analysis of time, place, and person variables through descriptive statistics, using templates available via WHO in Microsoft Office® Excel 2013 and Epi-Info® 7.1.3.

Results

Between 2008 and 2012, 5 829 cases grouped as external causes of injury were notified to SIVIGILA: 751 ophidic accidents (12.9%), 3 774 rabies attacks (64.7%), 1 231 poisoning cases (21.1%), 32 gunpowder injuries (0.5%), and 41 cases of violence (0.7%), with a male/female ratio of 1:1, average age of 25±19,3 (r=0.01-92), and 821 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) (2. 5 years per 1 000 inhabitants). In turn, SIVELCE received 15 539 reports: 12 834 intentional injuries (82.6%) and 2 704 unintentional injuries (17.4%), with a male/female ratio of 1:1, average age of 28±14.1 (r=0.03-90), correlation between dying by intentional injuries vs. unintentional injuries with an odds ratio of OR=0.12 (X2=1 060.56 1 g.l; p value=0.0), and DALY of 18 179 (55.8/1 000).

Conclusions

The external causes of injury affect men and women equally; DALYs occur at the expense of morbidity. All external causes of injury are preventable; therefore, it is necessary to strengthen surveillance, prevention and control actions.