Socioeconomic inequalities and mortality from workplace accidents among Social Security beneficiaries in Brazil.

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between socioeconomic inequality indicators and mortality from workplace accidents (WA) among Social Security beneficiaries in Brazil. It is an ecological study that investigated the association between WA mortality among Social Security beneficiaries from 2010 to 2022 and the Theil-L Index, Gini Index, and Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) of each federative unit, using Spearman's correlation. In summary, there was a moderate negative correlation between the average mortality rate and the Gini Index (rho = -0.458, p = 0.016) and the Theil-L Index (rho = -0.489, p = 0.010). No significant association was found between WA mortality and the MHDI. These findings suggest that in regions with greater inequality, the WA mortality rate tends to be lower. Such results are counterintuitive; among other possible reasons, this seemingly inverse relationship may be related to underreporting/underestimation of these events.