The covid-19 pandemic and hospital morbidity due to mental and behavioral disorders in Brazil: an interrupted time series analysis, from January 2008 to July 2021.

OBJECTIVE: to analyze records of hospitalizations due to mental and behavioral disorders before and after the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, from January 2008 to July 2021. METHODS: this was a descriptive ecological interrupted time series study, using secondary data retrieved from the Brazilian National Health System Hospital Information System; a time series analysis of hospitalizations was conducted based on a population-weighted Poisson regression model; relative risk (RR) and respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated. RESULTS: we identified 6,329,088 hospitalizations due to mental and behavioral disorders; hospitalization rates showed an 8% decrease (RR = 0.92; 95%CI 0.91;0.92) after the start of the pandemic, compared to the pre-pandemic period. CONCLUSION: the pandemic changed the trend of hospitalizations due to mental and behavioral disorders in Brazil; the drop observed in the period is evidence that the pandemic affected the mental health care network.

Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost Due to COVID-19 in Brazil.

In November 2020, Brazil ranked third in the number of cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and second in the number of deaths due to the disease. We carried out a descriptive study of deaths, mortality rate, years of potential life lost (YPLL) and excess mortality due to COVID-19, based on SARS-CoV-2 records in SIVEP-Gripe (Ministry of Health of Brazil) from 16 February 2020, to 1 January 2021. In this period, there were 98,025 deaths from COVID-19 in Brazil. Men accounted for 60.5% of the estimated 1.2 million YPLLs. High YPLL averages showed prematurity of deaths. The population aged 45-64 years (both sexes) represented more than 50% of all YPLLs. Risk factors were present in 69.5% of deaths, with heart disease, diabetes and obesity representing the most prevalent comorbidities in both sexes. Indigenous people had the lowest number of deaths and the highest average YPLL. However, in indigenous people, pregnant women and mothers had an average YPLL of over 35 years. The excess mortality for Brazil was estimated at 122,914 deaths (9.2%). The results show that the social impacts of YPLL due to COVID-19 are different depending on gender, race and risk factors. YPLL and excess mortality can be used to guide the prioritization of health interventions, such as prioritization of vaccination, lockdowns, or distribution of facial masks for the most vulnerable populations.