Homicidal violence related to labor activity: unveiling the silence of statistics on mortality in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

INTRODUCTION: Homicide related to labor activity are the most hidden of mortality statistics in Brazil. In Information System (SIM) the most important brazilian source of mortality data, it is impossible to notify the occurrence of work-related homicides. Objective: Deterministic linkage of two data sources (SIM and Disease Reporting System – SINAN, with 105 million records from SIM and 6.893 million records SINAN) are done to describe the profile of workers victims of murder related to the work reported in both information systems. 

METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 47 homicides occurred among workers in the period from 2008 to 2012 reported to (SINAN) from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Characteristics of the victims of the accident and were analyzed: sex, age, race, education, place of occurrence, causes accident, type of accident, treatment regimen and occupation.

RESULTS: The homicide victims were men (94%), aged > 25 years (85%), blacks (53%), ≤ 8 years of education (55%), dead in the street (43%) especially for gun fire (75%). In 62% the homicide was directly related to the labor activity of merchants, guards, bus drivers, taxi drivers, company directors and officers. None of these cases was reported in SIM as an occupational homicide.

CONCLUSIONS: The results raise discussions on the impact of homicidal violence in worker health. Furthermore, draws attention to the need to notify these cases the SIM as events related to the work. The routine integration of different data sources can contribute to reduce the undercount of such occurrence and qualify information regarding the risks associated to labor activity in Brazil and conduct preventive approaches.