Trends in Mortality from Leading Causes in Brazil from 2011 to 2020: An Ecological Study

Introduction: Deaths show the epidemiological scenario of the community and allow the planning of effective strategies for the prevention of deaths, mainly by immunopreventable and preventable causes, but for this the surveillance of death must have quality. Epidemiological studies should be carried out periodically to verify the epidemiological pattern of the causes.

Objective: To investigate the trends of mortality from leading causes in Brazil from 2011 to 2020.

Methodology: Ecological study, with secondary and public data, referring to the national surveillance of deaths. A descriptive and analytical analysis of the deaths per federation unit in Brazil was performed. We contrasted a graph with the six main causes and their trends, which was performed by the R2 equation. We calculated the mortality rate for 2011 and compared it with 2020. We also presented the mortality rates in a choroplectic map. The data were analyzed in Excel 2019, from aggregated data from DATASUS.

Results: The period of the study analyzed 12,899,133 million deaths in Brazil, and we highlight the six main causes.: IX Diseases of the circulatory system 3,498,722 (27.12%) upward trend 81%, II Neoplasms (tumors) 2,114,222 (16. 39%) increasing trend 96%, XX External causes of morbidity and mortality 1,512,786 (11.73%), X Respiratory system diseases 1,459,945 (11.52%) increasing trend 71%, IV Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases 786,693 (6.10%) increasing trend 80%. We highlight the highest mortality rates in the federal units in the southeast, south, and northeast of Brazil. Rio de Janeiro had the highest mortality in 2011 611/100,000 inhabitants and also in 2020 785/100,000 inhabitants. Followed by Rio Grande do Sul in 2011 596/100,000 inhabitants and 2020 650/100,000 inhabitants.

Conclusion: We evidenced the tendency of increase in diseases of the circulatory system, respiratory, neoplasms and metabolic endocrine. Highlighting for neoplasms leading all causes, followed by diseases of the circulatory system, which was already known as the leading cause and annual increase. The public policies for the prevention of chronic diseases in Brazil must be strengthened, along with primary health care, to improve the scenario of deaths in Brazil.