Mortality from diseases of the circulatory system in Brazil and its relationship with social determinants focusing on vulnerability: an ecological study.

BACKGROUND: Deaths from diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases are declining, but slowly in developing countries, emphasizing its probable relationship with determinants of social vulnerability. OBJECTIVES: To analyze the temporal progression of mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases from 1980 to 2019 and the association of the rates with the Municipal Human Development Index and Social Vulnerability Index in Brazil. METHODS: We estimated the crude and standardized mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases and analyzed the relationship between the obtained data and the Municipal Human Development Index and Social Vulnerability Index. Data on deaths and population were obtained from the DATASUS. The Municipal Human Development Index and the Social Vulnerability Index of each federative unit were extracted from the websites Atlas Brazil and Atlas of Social Vulnerability, respectively. RESULTS: The age-standardized mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases showed a downward trend nationwide, which was unequal across the federative units. There was an inversely proportional relationship between the standardized mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases and the Municipal Human Development Index. The downward mortality trend was observed when the indices were greater than 0.70 and 0.75, respectively. The Social Vulnerability Index was directly proportional to the standardized mortality rates of diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases. An upward mortality trend was observed with a Social Vulnerability Index greater than 0.35. CONCLUSIONS: Social determinants represented by the Municipal Human Development Index and the Social Vulnerability Index were related to mortality from diseases of the circulatory system and ischemic heart diseases across the Brazilian federative units. The units with most development and least social inequalities had the lowest mortality from these causes. The most vulnerable die the most.

Marked isotopic variability within and between the Amazon River and marine dissolved black carbon pools.

Riverine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) contains charcoal byproducts, termed black carbon (BC). To determine the significance of BC as a sink of atmospheric CO2 and reconcile budgets, the sources and fate of this large, slow-cycling and elusive carbon pool must be constrained. The Amazon River is a significant part of global BC cycling because it exports an order of magnitude more DOC, and thus dissolved BC (DBC), than any other river. We report spatially resolved DBC quantity and radiocarbon (Δ14C) measurements, paired with molecular-level characterization of dissolved organic matter from the Amazon River and tributaries during low discharge. The proportion of BC-like polycyclic aromatic structures decreases downstream, but marked spatial variability in abundance and Δ14C values of DBC molecular markers imply dynamic sources and cycling in a manner that is incongruent with bulk DOC. We estimate a flux from the Amazon River of 1.9-2.7 Tg DBC yr-1 that is composed of predominately young DBC, suggesting that loss processes of modern DBC are important.