Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

Description

Brazil has been presenting a new demographic pattern characterized by reduction in the population growth rate and by profound transformation in the formation of its age structure, with significant increase of the elderly contingent. Those modifications have caused important changes in the population epidemiological profile, with relevant effect on morbidity and mortality indicators, and constitute, together with other selected themes on health and demography, objects of study of this publication.

The analyses, organized in six chapters, are based on IBGE surveys and administrative records of external institutions. They consider individual characteristics of the population, such as sex, age, schooling, and income, in varied reference periods and geographical spaces.

The first chapter deals with the birth profile and progresses observed in the record coverage of those events. The second one focuses the process of demographic transition, considering trends, patterns and rhythms of its main components, and assesses the impacts that changes in the population age structure may exert on social public policies directed to children, youngsters and the elderly. The third chapter examines the quality of information on mortality in Brazil, and the impact of violent causes on the years of life lost by the population, especially male youngsters. The elderly conditions of health are investigated in the fourth chapter, which also reveals the differentials of access to health services and the functional capacity of this population contingent. The fifth chapter focuses the Indigenous persons and highlights the importance of data obtained by population censuses, as the health/disease profile of those peoples is still little known in Brazil, because of the exiguous investigations and the precarious information systems about morbidity and mortality of this part of the population. The last chapter discusses the socioeconomic and space differences observed in the distribution of imaging diagnosis equipment, as well as its productivity, focusing private and public sectors.

The presented indicators clearly show the multiple social realities of the country, of which health is a facet, and contribute to the formulation of policies and programs aimed at reducing inequalities in health, according to demographic, epidemiological and socioeconomic differences that characterize the country.