Mortalidade por câncer de próstata e mama no Brasil: uma análise sob a ótica da econometria espacial

Abstract

Cancer has become a public health problem in Brazil, which is evident by the increase in its incidence and mortality rates by research institutes specializing in the subject such as the National Cancer Institute and International Agency for Research on Cancer. In Brazil, prostate câncer (PC) and breast câncer (BC) are currently the most common types of cancers in men and women, respectively. Therefore, in order to determine the spatial distribution of PC and BC mortality in Brazilian micro-regions and to verify their interrelationship with socio-demographic, economic, environmental and infrastructure factors, the techniques of Spatial Econometic were used: Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis – ESDA and Spatial dependence modelling. Variables were chosen to represent the factors, according to relevant literature and data availability, being this: oncology referral hospitals, number of oncology specialist doctors, aging rate, urbanization rate, average amount of pesticides used, Gross Domestic Product, and number of mammography devices. The database used comes from the Brazilian Health Informatics Department - DATASUS and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE. Positive spatial autocorrelation was found for the mortality rate from prostate cancer (I = 0.4537; p ≤ 0.001) and breast cancer (I = 0.4842; p ≤ 0.001). The prostate cancer mortality rate has a positive correlation with the aging rate and urbanization rate. The breast cancer mortality rate was positively correlated with the number of specialist doctors, reference hospitals, urbanization rate, and aging rate, but it was negatively correlated with the number of mammography devices. It was an indicative that the higher life expectancy and Western lifestyle have an influence on the increase in mortality from prostate and breast cancer in Brazil. In view of the above, it is considered that the general and specific objectives of the research have been achieved and the spatial analysis of cancer mortality has made it possible to find statistical correlations that merit epidemiological research to subsidize actions in the fight against prostate and breast cancer mortality in women in Brazil.