Health Conditions and Adult Mortality in Brazil: Keys and Transitions

Neir A. Paes, Federal University of Paraiba

This paper examines the health conditions of the adult population in Brazil, exploring the levels, trends and geographical differentials of the main causes of deaths from 1980 to 1995 by age and sex. The 26 states were classified according to the quality of the registry of deaths obtained from the Ministry of Health, and mortality rates were calculated. The health conditions in the country improved, but the south and southeast regions seem to be in a more advanced step of the mortality transition in Brazil. A sex-gap widened due to a larger decline in female mortality. It was verified an extraordinary increase of the mortality by external causes. The diseases of the circulatory and respiratory system and neoplasm played an important role. For this, socioeconomic indicators were used and lineal regression model was used to analyze the impact of different causes on the health conditions.