Scorpion accidents in two municipalities in the metropolitan region of Sorocaba, São Paulo: descriptive and spatiotemporal analysis.

• Grant number: 25/05770-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Epidemiology
• Principal Investigator: Francisco Chiaravalloti Neto
• Grantee: Augusto Pontes de Souza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Saúde Pública (FSP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Scorpions are venomous animals widely distributed across the continents and in Brazil. They represent a health concern for different populations due to accidents, which can be characterized by varying degrees of severity, ranging from mild reactions to more complex and fatal conditions, depending on the characteristics of the venom and the amount injected. In the state of São Paulo, as well as throughout Brazil, it is possible to see an increase in accidents involving scorpions, which have currently become the main type of accidents due to poisoning by venomous animals. This study aims to describe the occurrence and identify clusters of scorpion accidents in the cities of Sorocaba and Votorantim, in the state of São Paulo, from 2010 to 2023. Initially, a descriptive analysis of the accidents that occurred in the two cities will be carried out, considering variables such as sex and age. The accidents will then be geocoded by address and grouped by census tracts in both municipalities. This will allow maps to be obtained with incidence rates by tract both throughout the study period and in each year. The scanning statistics of the SaTScan program will be used to obtain spatial, spatiotemporal, temporal and seasonal clusters of high and low risk, as well as clusters of spatial variation in the temporal trend. The values ¿¿of socioeconomic, environmental, climatic variables, among others, will be compared between the sets of census tracts classified as high risk and low risk using the Student's t-test to compare means. (AU)