Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: April-March | Volume: 4 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 109-120
Geographic Variation of Public Health Data Collection Associated With Health Outcomes: Elevated Lung Cancer Mortality in a Medium-Sized City in Brazil
Heslley Machado Silva1, Brenda Maria Oliveira Mendonça2, Jayne Cristina Guimarães3, Luciana Soares Rodrigues4, Robert A. Michaels5
1,2,3,4 University Center of Formiga/MG. UNIFOR/MG. Dr. Arnaldo de Senna Avenue, 328 – Água Vermelha. Formiga City. State of Minas Gerais. Brazil.
5RAM TRAC Corporation, 3100 Rosendale Road, Schenectady, NY 12309, USA.
Corresponding Author: Heslley Machado Silva
ABSTRACT
Background: Cancers collectively pose a major public health challenge globally. Lung cancer is among the most common and deadly cancer types, but its incidence and mortality rates in small- and medium-sized municipalities may be difficult to explain adequately where inadequate data collection hampers health studies.
Objective: to investigate lung cancer incidence and mortality in Formiga, a medium-sized municipality in southeastern Brazil.
Materials and Methods: Accordingly, we augmented limited available data from the Brazilian Government DATASUS database with interviews with 12 local physicians.
Results and Conclusions: Interviews revealed lung cancer mortality in Formiga significantly exceeding Brazil’s national average reported in DATASUS. Lung cancer mortality of females likewise was elevated. Physicians suggested that tobacco use explains the elevated mortality. Available data and physician interviews, however, together failed to determine quantitatively whether excess lung cancer could be explained fully by elevated tobacco use in Formiga. More complete data collection and further research will be needed to explain adequately the incidence and mortality anomalies in the municipality as a whole, and among females in particular. In the current circumstance of limited data availability, such investigations inevitably must require additional, labor-intensive epidemiological approaches. Routine, thorough collection of public health data, and of lung cancer incidence and mortality data specifically, for municipalities of all sizes would improve cost effectiveness of public health endeavors.
Keywords: lung cancer incidence, mortality, data collection, geographic variation, physician interviews