Excess mortality associated with COVID-19 in Brazil: 2020-2021.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate excess mortality in Brazil from January 2020 to April 2021, according to the primary causes of death registered in the Brazilian Mortality Information System (MIS). METHODS: Cross-sectional study with data extracted from the MIS. Excess deaths were examined by the primary cause of death according to 11 grouped causes. Autoregressive models used mortality data from 2015 to 2019 to predict expected deaths from January 2020 to April 2021. Excess deaths were calculated as the difference between the observed and the expected number of deaths. RESULTS: Total excess deaths of 370 055 were observed in the studied period, corresponding to a ratio of observed to expected of 1.14 in 2020 and 1.40 in 2021. Excess deaths were seen in three groups: symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified; other diseases of the respiratory system and coronavirus infection, unspecified site. CONCLUSIONS: The excess mortality in Brazil in these 16 months was 1.20 times greater than the previous year. The increase in not elsewhere classified causes and causes of death associated to COVID-19 indicate caution about the negative balance for some causes. Furthermore, the inequalities of mortality reporting systems in low- and middle-income countries in relation to underestimation of mortality still need to be addressed.

Bioelectric impedance overestimates the body fat in overweight and underestimates in Brazilian obese women: a comparison with Segal equation 1.

INTRODUCTION: Overweight and obesity are risk factors to appearance of cardiovascular diseases and anthropometry is important as clinical tool for planning and health policymaking at population level. Thus, aim of this work was to compare the simple body fat percentage (%BF) obtained straight by bioeletric impedance (BIA) to the one obtained by the equation of Segal et al (1988), which uses the BIA resistance value, overweight among adult women. METHODS: This study conducted with 86 adult women (50.5±11.0 years old). Body weight and height were measured and estimated the body mass index (BMI). %BF was assessed by BIA (Biodynamics® model 450) and Segal equation. RESULTS: %BF derived from BIA (38.0±4.6%) and Segal et al (1988) (38.7±8.1%) were similar (p=0.85). However, when the women were distributed, in two groups based on their BMI, overweight (n=40; BMI=27.3±1.2 kg/m²) and obesity (n=46; BMI= 36.2±5.1 kg/m²), the two methods presented results significant different (p=0.000). The %BF of overweight women was 34.6±3.6% by BIA and 30.3±2.1% when estimated by Segal equation. In obese women, the %BF was 41.0±3.0% and 46.0±2.6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: BIA overestimated %BF in overweight (+14.2%; +3.0 kg) and underestimated in obese (-10.9%;-4.4 kg) women.