Covid-19 in Brazil in 2020: impact on deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on cancer and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) as underlying cause of death and comorbidity in Brazil and regions in 2020. Methods: Data from cancer and CVD deaths as underlying cause and comorbidity occurred between March and December of 2019 and 2020 were gathered from the Mortality Information System (SIM) databases. COVID-19 deaths from 2020 were also analyzed. For the calculation of the Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR) and estimate of excess deaths, data from 2019 were considered as standard. Results: Between March and December 2020, 181,377 deaths from cancer and 291,375 from CVD were registered in Brazil, indicating a reduction of 9.7% and 8.8%, respectively, if compared to the same period in the previous year. This pattern remained the same in the five Brazilian regions with the smallest variation for cancer (-8.4% in the South Region to -10.9% in the Midwest Region). An important variation was observed for CVD (-2.2% in the North region to -10.5 in the Southeast and South regions). In the same period of 2020, cancer and CVD were informed as comorbidities in 18,133 and 188,204 deaths, indicating a proportional excess when compared to the 2019 data, of 82.1% and 77.9%, respectively. This excess for both studied causes was more expressive in the North region, with a ratio of 2.5 between observed and expected deaths. Conclusions: The excess of deaths from cancer and CVD as comorbidities in 2020 may indicate that COVID-19 had an important impact among patients with these conditions.