Economic cost of premature deaths caused by traffic accidents in the department of Cesar - Colombia during the period 2000-2018

Abstract

The World Health Organization estimates that around 1,350,000 people die in traffic accidents each year in the world, a situation that is preventable. Deaths due to traffic accidents in Colombia were the fifth leading cause of death in men in 2018 with a total of 5,795 cases and well above diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and all types of cancers. For the Department of Cesar, the mortality rate is 23.05, per 100,000 inhabitants, becoming the fourth external cause of mortality. With the development of this work, an approximate estimate of the years lost and the economic cost of premature deaths caused by traffic accidents in the department of Cesar was generated for the period between 2000 and 2018. The methodological process was developed based on the anonymized microdata of non-fetal deaths that occurred in the department of Cesar whose cause of death was a traffic accident. To determine the economic value of each death, the life expectancy of each year was taken and the age of each person at the time of death was subtracted in order to calculate the years lost due to premature death and this value was multiplied by the legal minimum wage in force for each year. On average for the study period, the department of Cesar lost 7,695 years due to premature deaths each year, mainly of people of working age or of productive age, generating an economic loss of $ 76,410,855,553 Due to the magnitude of the human tragedy that traffic accidents represent, it is important that this issue enter the public agenda of the department of César.