Excess mortality from all causes during the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate excess mortality in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, due to the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020 to January 2022). Methods: Ecological study using secondary data from the Brazilian Mortality Information System, having the city of Rio de Janeiro as the unit of analysis. Excess mortality was estimated by the difference between the mean number of all expected deaths and the mean number of observed deaths, considering the 2015–2019 period. The quantile regression method was adjusted. The total value of cases above that expected by the historical series was estimated. Among all deaths, cases of COVID-19 and Influenza as underlying causes of death were selected. The ratio between excess mortality and deaths due to COVID-19 was calculated. Results: We identified an excess of 31,920 deaths by the mean (increase of 26.8%). The regression pointed to 31,363 excess deaths. We found 33,401 deaths from COVID-19 and 176 deaths from Influenza. The ratio between the verified excess mortality and deaths due to COVID-19 was 0.96 by the mean and 0.95 by the regression. Conclusion: The study pointed to large excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Rio de Janeiro distributed in waves, including the period of the Influenza outbreak.

Excess suicides in Brazil during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic: Gender, regional and age group inequalities

“…Brazil has been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in roughly 706,000 direct and a few hundred thousand indirect deaths, including those related to diabetes mellitus, maternal mortality and other respiratory causes (Nucci et al, 2023; Orellana et al, 2022; Saraceni et al, 2023). According to a preliminary analysis on suicides in Brazil during the first pandemic months, excess suicides were almost entirely restricted to certain subgroups (Orellana & Souza, 2022), such as women and girls, the elderly and those regions that historically have the worst social indicators and access to health facilities (Baqui et al, 2020; Ferreira et al, 2023; Szwarcwald et al, 2016).…”

Análise da tendência nas taxas de detecção de sífilis em gestantes e de incidência de sífilis congênita no Ceará no período de 2015 a 2021

“…Conversely, people have also stopped seeking these services for fear of exposure to the virus. These situations caused failures in diagnosis and treatment in primary care, with the interruption of the usual patterns of health care globally 6 .…”

“…Por outro lado, as pessoas também deixaram de procurar esses serviços por medo da exposição ao vírus. Essas situações provocaram falhas no diagnóstico e tratamento na atenção primária, com a interrupção dos padrões usuais de atendimento à saúde de forma global 6 .…”