Adult and Elderly Mortality in Brazil: Keys and Transitions

Neir A. Paes, Federal University of Paraiba

The rapid increase of the aging process in Brazil since the 80's motivated to examine trends, differentials and determinants of adult and elderly mortality for Brazil and regions by the main causes of death and determine associations with socioeconomic indicators in the period from 1980 to 1995. The states were classified according to the quality of the registry of death and age-sex mortality rates were calculated. The key points of the mortality transition in the period were an extraordinary increase of the external causes for adults, reduction for circulatory diseases, increase of neoplasm and respiratory diseases and a control of infectious diseases. Some indicators were calculated and generalized lineal models were used to investigate the association between the rates of adult and elderly mortality by causes and socioeconomic indicators. The ecological analysis revealed suggestive indications of these relationships for both sexes.