Spatial Analysis of Mortality by Cardiovascular Disease in the Adult Population: A Study for Brazilian Micro-Regions Between 1996 and 2015

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the most serious health issues and the leading cause of death worldwide in both developed and developing countries, including Brazil. However, CVD mortality rates are not uniformly distributed across the country. Brazil is marked by important regional differences resulting from socioeconomic inequality and limited access to health services. Mortality varies in a number of dimensions including age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, educational level and geography/space. Geographic inequalities in mortality in Brazil appear to be greater than other countries in Latin America. Given the spatial distribution of causes and heterogeneity of deaths from cardiovascular disease in Brazil, both at macro and micro levels, the goal of this paper is to evaluate the spatial patterns of deaths from CVD in the adult population (over 30years of age), by sex, in Brazilian micro-regions from 1996 to 2015. Our main contribution was to study an important cause of death in small areas (micro-regions), taking into consideration space, as a proxy of socioeconomic conditions, access to health care and social norms that might affect CVD, as an important variable to understand changes in the CVD mortality.