RISK OF IN-ITINERE ACCIDENT IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS

Abstract

Traffic Accidents (TA) are the eight cause of death in the world. They are becoming a priority problem in public health for the World Health Organization due to the rise in mortality rates, and the economic costs and social impact that it has generated in the last years.1 According to the Pan-American Health Organization, Ecuador holds the second place in Latin America for traffic accidents and ranks seven for its mortality rate due to TA worldwide,2 registering during the period of 1998 to 2015 a total of 29.148 fatalities.3 The Metropolitan District of Quito is the second city in the country with the greater number of registered accidents (10.777), injured victims (5.984) and fatalities (334) due to TA in 2016.4 In the last years, the number of workers that use their own vehicles and other means of transportation to commute to their workplace has increased. In this sense, in-itinere accidents have become a priority problem in safety and occupational health for companies.5,6 This problem is evidenced in the statistics of the General Insurance of Work Risk of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS);7 in 2013, the commuting accidents represented 5.1% of the total work accidents reported, increasing to 20.9% for 2016.