Violência interpessoal contra crianças no Brasil e consumo de álcool pelo agressor

Abstract

Violence is a phenomenon originated from unequal relationships, affecting population segments or people who are at some physical, economic, cultural or emotional disadvantage. It can result in injury, death, psychological harm, developmental disability or deprivation. Despite the social relevance of the theme of violence, it is still a little explored topic. It is considered important to quantify the reports of violence and investigate the data related to the suspected use of alcohol by the aggressor to support measures to promote health and prevent violence against children. This study aims to analyze epidemiological aspects of interpersonal violence against children in Brazil and to correlate it with suspected alcohol consumption by the aggressor. This study has an analytical ecological nature and quantified the cases of interpersonal violence against children up to nine years old, registered in 2018, in the Federative Units (FU) and Brazilian macro-regions. The quantitative variables investigated refer to the number of records of violence: in females; in males; for each of the different categories of color/race/ethnicity, location of violence, type of violence and the aggressor's bond/kinship and; for the number of records of suspected alcohol use by the aggressor. Spearman's correlation test (rs) was performed between records of suspected alcohol use by the aggressor with data on violence against children, with a significance level of p < 0.05. In Brazil, 51,094 reports of violence against children were recorded. A majority scenario was found for: girls (n = 27,792), white children (n = 27,794), occurrences in homes (n = 32,916), by mother aggressor (n = 25,616) and neglect/abandonment type violence (n = 26,955). For the repetition of violence, 12,503 records were recorded. The suspicion of alcohol use by the aggressor was present in 4,662 notifications, correlating with records of the FU for repetition of violence (rs = 0.939), sibling aggressor (rs = 0.939) and physical violence (rs = 0.953), p < 0.001. Besides the scientific production, technical products were developed in the area of violence, such as e-books, forms for recording information on cases of interpersonal violence, flowchart for reporting interpersonal violence and lectures. Interpersonal violence affected thousands of Brazilian children, victims of their own mothers and at home, being correlated to the suspected use of alcohol by the aggressor. Abusive use of alcohol can be considered a modifiable determinant, and health education is important in the fight/prevention of alcoholism to reduce/prevent interpersonal violence in family spaces or outside it. The technical products will provide permanent education for health teams, with contributions in the scope of case identification and notification.