Excess Mortality due to natural causes among whites and blacks during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical. Revista

article

Teixeira, Renato Azeredo¹  Vasconcelos, Ana Maria Nogales²  Torens, Ana³  França, Elisabeth Barboza¹  Ishitani, Lenice¹  Bierrenbach, Ana Luiza⁴  Abreu, Daisy Maria Xavier de¹  Marinho, Fátima³ 

[1] Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais;Universidade de Brasília;Vital Strategies;Hospital Sírio-Libanês

关键词: Excess mortality;    COVID-19;    Race;    Skin color;    Health information system;   

DOI  :  10.1590/0037-8682-0283-2021

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical

【 摘 要 】

INTRODUCTION:Excess Mortality by all causes considers deaths directly related to COVID-19 and those attributed to conditions caused by the pandemic. When stratified by social dimensions, such as race/color, it allows for the evaluation of more vulnerable populations. The study estimated the excess mortality by natural causes, separating the white and black populations in 2020. METHODS Public civil registration data on deaths observed in 2020, corrected for under registration, were used. The expected number of deaths was estimated based on the mortality rates observed in 2019, applied to the estimated population in 2020. The difference between the values expected and observed and the proportion of excess was considered the excess mortality. RESULTS:The present study found an excess of 270,321 deaths (22.2% above the expected) in 2020. Every state of Brazil reported deaths above the corresponding expected figure. The excess was higher for men (25.2%) than for women (19.0%). Blacks showed an excess of 27.8%, as compared to whites at 17.6%. In both sexes and all age groups, excess was higher in the black population, especially in the South, Southeast, and Midwest regions. São Paulo, the largest in population number, had twice as much excess death in the black population (25.1%) than in the white population (11.5%). CONCLUSIONS:The present study showed racial disparities in excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. The higher excess found for the black suggests an intrinsic relationship with the socioeconomic situation, further exposing the Brazilian reality, in which social and structural inequality is evident.

【 授权许可】

CC BY