Temporal and Spatial Trends in Childhood Asthma-Related Hospitalizations in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil and Their Association with Social Vulnerability.

INTRODUCTION: Asthma is a multifactorial disease and a serious public health problem. Environmental factors and poverty are the main determinants of this disease. OBJECTIVE: To describe the spatial and temporal distribution of asthma-related hospitalizations and identify the areas with the highest prevalence of and vulnerability to severe asthma in a major Brazilian city. METHODS: An ecological study of hospitalizations for asthma from 2002 to 2012, in children and adolescents under 15 years of age, living in Belo Horizonte, Southeast Brazil. All events were geocoded by residence address using Hospital Information System data. The socioeconomic vulnerability of residence address was ranked using the Health Vulnerability Index. Raster surfaces were generated and time-series plots were constructed to determine spatial and time trends in the frequency of asthma-related hospitalizations, respectively. RESULTS: Asthma-related hospitalization rates were highest in children aged 0-4 years and in boys. There was a decreasing trend in the number of asthma-related hospitalizations across the study period. Approximately 48% of all hospitalizations were children living in health vulnerable areas. Seasonal trends showed a hospitalization peak in March, April, and May, coinciding with the post-rainy period. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that social and environmental factors may be determinants of disparities in severe asthma.

The urban environment from the health perspective: the case of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

O objetivo desse estudo foi conhecer a distribuição de eventos em saúde em ambiente urbano. Foram georrefenciados ao endereço de residência casos de homicídios, gravidez na adolescência, internações por asma em crianças, dengue e leishmaniose visceral. A análise incluiu, para cada evento, cálculo de indicadores anuais médios, construção de mapas temáticos usando o índice comparativo de morbidade, além da criação de escores do padrão de ocorrência simultânea dos eventos por unidade espacial. Taxas elevadas de homicídio, de mães adolescentes e de internação por asma foram observadas em áreas de grandes desigualdades sociais do município. Para as doenças vetoriais, foram encontradas aglomerações de altos índices dos eventos em regiões desfavorecidas em contraponto com baixos índices em regiões favorecidas, além da relativamente pouca coexistência dos dois agravos nas mesmas regiões do município. O estudo sugeriu a coexistência espacial de agravos consagrados como resultantes das desigualdades sociais, em áreas caracterizadas pela miséria e pobreza, com grupos sociais desfavorecidos, representados pelas camadas mais pobres da população. Sugeriu também uma possível participação de fatores ambientais na modulação dos eventos de origem vetorial.

The urban environment from the health perspective: the case of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

This study aims to determine spatial patterns of mortality and morbidity for five health problems in an urban environment: homicides, adolescent pregnancy, asthma hospitalization, and two vector-borne diseases, dengue and visceral leishmaniasis. All events were obtained through the city health database and geoprocessed using residential addresses and 80 planning units consisting of census tracts. We used thematic maps, proportionate mortality/morbidity ratios by planning unit, and the overlapped rank of the 20th worse planning unit rates for each event. A spatial pattern of high rates of homicides, proportion of young mothers, and hospitalization due to asthma overlapped in socially and economically disadvantaged areas. For the two vector-borne diseases, high rates with great dispersion were found in underprivileged areas, in contrast with very low rates among higher income areas. The results indicated the coexistence of heavier disease burden for residents of urban areas where poverty and lack of effective public health policies may be modulating social health problems. For the two vector-borne diseases, an environmental intervention in one mosquito-borne disease might be playing a role in the other's incidence.