[Elderly people victims of traffic accidents in the municipality of Ribeirao Preto-SP, in 1998].

The considerable increase in the elderly population is resulting in several studies on the effects of external accidents to the population included in this age band. This study aimed at characterizing the elderly people victimized by traffic accidents and assisted in a public hospital in the City of Ribeirão Preto-SP, Brazil. A retrospective study was conducted using the data collected by the Epidemiological Surveillance Services of the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto Faculty of Medicine. The data referring to 112 victims aged 60 to 85 years were analyzed from January to December, 1998. In this way, it can be observed that, among them, 56.3% of the victims are males and 42% are aged 60 to 64 years. Most of the subjects were pedestrians (41.4%) and their most frequently injured body area was the head (36.7%). It is important to point out that 50.9% had some type of sequel resulting from the trauma. This work aimed at emphasizing such theme by pointing out the importance of studies in the area of gerontology associated with traffic accidents.