Profile of occupational accidents with children and adolescents in Brazil from 2011 to 2020

Abstract

Objective: to describe the profile of occupational accidents involving children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 years in Brazil, in the period from 2011 to 2020. Methods: descriptive study based on data from the Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação (SINAN - Notifiable Diseases Information System) and from the Sistema de Informação sobre Mortalidade (SIM - Mortality Information System). Results: from 2011 to 2020, a total of 24,909 cases of occupational accidents involving minors under 18 years of age were registered on SINAN. Most of these cases occurred with males (82.3%), aged 16 to 17 years (84.6%), whites (44.0%), mainly within “Service workers” job titles subgroup as assigned by Brazilian Classification of Occupations. Almost half of the accidents affected the hands and upper limbs (48.7%) and the main diagnosis was “fist and hand injury” (17.7%). A total of 466 deaths were registered in that time period, with 15.9% referring to deaths of children aged 5 to 13 years. Conclusion: registers show records of occupational accidents and deaths related to child labor, including those involving children under 14 years of age, a group in which work is prohibited. It is necessary to ensure the development of research and actions that contribute to the elimination of child labor.