Qualidade da informação sobre óbitos por causas externas em município de médio porte em Minas Gerais, Brasil

Suicide mortality among older adults in Brazil between 2000 and 2019 - estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

INTRODUCTION

Older adults present a higher risk of suicide, and Brazil is experiencing a fast population aging. To understand the impact of demographic transition, we compared Brazilian suicide mortality rates (MR) among adults (50+ years) with global rates, those from one high-income country, and those from one middle-income country. Looking for regional disparities, the MR was analyzed among older adults (60+ years) by Brazilian states.

METHODS

This was an ecological study based on estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study, from 2000 to 2019. Age-standardized MR and age-specific MR per 100,000 inhabitants were described, with 95% uncertainty intervals (UI).

RESULTS

During the period, the annual estimates and the declining trend in mortality were higher in the world than in the studied countries. In 2019, global age-standardized MR was 9.39 (95% UI 8.48-10.29), compared to 5.68 (95% UI 5.40-6.19), 6.01 (95% UI 5.10-7.04), and 6.63 (95% UI 6.43-6.95) in Brazil, Mexico, and England, respectively. In Brazil, despite a significant decline in national rates, stability was observed in 15 states. An increase in aging was only found for men, who presented 3-4 times higher MR than women. The states' rates presented large differences: in 2019, the rates among men aged 60-64 years varied from 7.24 (95% UI 5.31; 9.85) to 26.32 (95% UI 20.21; 34.50).

CONCLUSIONS

The smaller decline in suicide mortality among older Brazilian adults, the increasing risk with aging, and the higher mortality among men indicate the need for specific prevention policies. The variation within states suggests differences in the data quality or in socio-cultural and historical aspects, which requires further investigation.

[Spatial and temporal patterns of mortality among motorcyclists in a State of the Brazilian Northeast in the 21st century]

The scope of this work was to analyze the trend and distribution of mortality among motorcyclists in traffic accidents in the State of Alagoas. It involved an ecological study relating to all deaths resulting from motorcycle accidents in the state in the period from 2001 to 2015. Mortality data were obtained from the Mortality Information System (MIS). Mortality rates were calculated and stratified by gender. The joinpoint regression model was used for trend analysis and the Annual Percentage Variation (APV) was calculated with a significance rate of 5%. For the spatial analysis, local empirical Bayesian modeling and Moran statistics and spatial scanning statistics were applied. There were 1,458 deaths of motorcyclists in the period studied, 91.3% of which were men. Three temporal behaviors were observed in this population group: growth (2001-2005), stationary pattern (2005-2013) and decline from 2013 onwards. The highest rates were observed in the 'agreste' and 'sertão' regions of the state of Alagoas. Five spatial clusters were revealed with relation to general and male mortality, all located in the 'agreste' and 'sertão' hinterlands of Alagoas. The modeling showed a reduction of mortality from 2013 onwards and the spatial analysis revealed that the problem is more acute in the interior of the state.

Improvement of the unspecified external causes classification based on the investigation of death in Brazil in 2017

BACKGROUND

Unspecified causes of death are among the traditional indicators of quality of information.

OBJECTIVE

To verify the performance of the 60 cities in the Data for Health Initiative project and to analyze the reclassification of unspecified external causes of death (UEC).

METHODS

Using the 2017 records from the Mortality Information System, the proportion and percent change in UEC were compared after investigation between project cities and other cities, and the percent of reclassification to specific external causes was calculated.

RESULTS

The project cities comprised 52% (n = 11,759) of the total UEC in Brazil, of which 64.5% were reclassified after investigation, whereas the other cities reclassified 31% of UEC. Results were similar for men, youth, blacks, metropolitan cities, the Southeast region, and deaths attested by forensic institutes. In the project cities, pedestrian traffic accidents were external causes with greater reclassification. In men, the UEC was reclassified to homicides (23.8%) and accident of terrestrial transportation (ATT) (11.1%), with motorcyclists (4.4%) and pedestrians (4.3%) being the most prominent. In women, these causes were changed to other accident causes (20.8%), ATT (10.6%) and homicides (7.9%). UEC changed to ATT (18.3%) in the age groups of 0-14 years old and to homicides (32.5%) in the age groups of 15-44 years.

CONCLUSION

The project cities obtained better results after investigation of UEC, enabling analysis of the reclassification to specific causes by sex and age groups.

Review of deaths correction methods and quality dimensions of the underlying cause for accidents and violence in Brazil

This review article aims to perform analysis and critical discussion about the literature on methods correcting mortality from accidents and violence reported to the Brazilian Mortality Information System. We consulted Medline and SciELO databases, as well as the Global Burden of Disease site, using time filter for the 1996-2015 interval. Of the 77 studies identified, we selected 29, and 14 met the corrections production criteria for cases of underreporting: underreporting of deaths in the Mortality Information System, deaths declared as ill-defined causes or deaths from external causes declared with nonspecific codes. We found that the underreporting of external causes was not significantly different from what occurs in total deaths and sometimes was higher in small and medium-sized municipalities. The reclassification of ill-defined causes of death corrected external causes to non-negligible values. The selected studies differ on proposals for correction of unspecified external causes. Evidence supports interventions to improve the quality of data, and the availability of correction procedure of external causes that bring together application conditions.