Spatial analysis of the causes of infant mortality in Brazil from 2000 to 2015

Abstract

Introduction: The analysis of child health indicators is essential to identify the needs for health care improvements. Objective:  to evaluate the spatial distribution of causes of infant mortality in Brazil from 2000 to 2015 with coverage of primary care and childcare consultations. Methodology: Ecological study of temporal trend with spatial analysis performed in Brazil using data available in the Informatics Department of the Unified Health System, in the years 2000 to 2015, which were collected in May 2017. Results: The main causes of infant deaths are causes considered preventable by Primary Care and a similar behavior was observed in four of these that showed high autocorrelation in the north, northeast and southeast regions, chapters 01, 10 16 and 18. It is important to highlight that only one was discharged in the southeast region, which were deaths from congenital malformations, deformities and chromosomal anomalies. When correlating with childcare consultations and primary care coverage, it was observed that in the period from 2000 to 2004 there was a low performance in population health care. Conclusions: The results of the present study show that although the health care of the population has been improving over the years, it is still necessary to give greater attention to the child health of the country in order to reduce infant deaths due to preventable causes.