The Role of Race in Deaths of Despair in Brazil: Is it a White People Problem?

Background: A new paradigm has been discussed regarding the impact of economic cycles on the mortality pattern from specific causes. These causes are called deaths of despair, and they selectively impact specific demographic groups. Also, low- and middle-income countries are most affected due to their economic and social instability. In this sense, the objective of study was to compare the magnitude of disparity in deaths from despair according to sex, age, and race in Brazil.

Methods: We performed Poisson regression modeling to estimate the magnitude of the association between sex, age group, race, and deaths from despair. Also, we estimated the relationship of time as a proxy of economic crisis phase and deaths of despair.

Results: We found an association between mortality from despair and male sex (PR = 6.15, 95%CI 6.09-6.22); emphasis on the age groups from 40 to 49 years old (PR = 2.45, 95% CI 2.41-2.48) and 50 to 59 years old (PR = 2.39, 95% CI 2.36-2.43); and brown (PR = 1.21, 95% CI 1.20-1.22) and black race (PR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.34-1.37).

Conclusions: The present study preliminarily presents the effect of the economic crisis and mortality in the population, with demographic differences. Association with race was opposite to that verified in the original study in the USA, which suggests that this variable should be analyzed in the light of structural context.