Abstract

FERRERO FERNANDEZ, Elena; CASTRO DELGADO, Rafael; PEREZ-BERROCAL ALONSO, Jorge  and  ARCOS GONZALEZ, Pedro. Disaster mortality in Spain: an analysis of the period 1950-2012. Index Enferm [online]. 2017, vol.26, n.1-2, pp.113-117. ISSN 1699-5988.

Objective: To estimate the impact on mortality due to disasters in Spain since 1950 to 2012 and its epidemiological trends. Methods: Retrospective observational study with trend analysis by regression analysis and exponential smoothing. Results: We studied 284 events during the period. 57% were technological disasters (81% transport accidents), 39% were natural disasters (64% biological disasters) and 4% deliberated events. We found a significant (p<0,05) increasing trend in the total number of disasters, as well in natural and technological disaster groups, and also in the biological, climatological and transport accident subgroups. Technological disasters show highest average mortality per episode. Decreasing mortality trend was found significant (p<0,05). Conclusions: Spain showed a mixed pattern of disaster type although technological ones are the most frequent. There is an upward trend of disaster frequency, especially in biological, climatological and transport accident subgroups. Mortality is determined by high-impact events.

Keywords : Mortality; Disasters; Public health surveillance; Epidemiology; Trends.