OBJECTIVE: To identify clusters of municipalities with high rates of hospitalization due to motorcycle accidents in the "Vale do Paraíba". METHODS: This was an ecological study and exploratory data was obtained by DATASUS for the period 2001 to 2005 in 27 municipalities in the "Vale do Paraíba Paulista", covering a population of about one million inhabitants. The spatial analysis used the program Terraview and the Moran Global coefficients with respect to hospitalization rate and fleet of motorcycle were obtained. while the Pearson correlation was used for admission. Thematic maps of spatial distribution and of the BoxMap were constructed . Hospitalization data were addressed as rates per 100 thousand inhabitants. RESULTS: During the study period 1268 people were admitted, ranging from one to 608 hospital admissions per municipality. The coefficient of Moran Global IM = 0.34 (p = 0.02) for hospitalization rate and IM = 0.42 (p = 0.012) for admission rate according to the fleet. For hospitalization rate due to motorcycle accidents, there was also strong correlation between fleet of motorcycle and hospitalization (r = 0.94). CONCLUSION: A large cluster involving nine municipalities in the western region of the Paraíba Valley could be identified, thereby locating the residence of those hospitalized for motorcycle accidents, highlighting municipalities where preventive measures should be enforced.
External causes; Geography; Epidemiology, Descriptive; Public health
