Biomass burning and cardiovascular diseases in Mato Grosso State: a spatial approach

Abstract

Environmental factors have influenced human health leading to illness due to cardiovascular diseases. This ecological and exploratory study analyzes the spatial distribution of burn outbreaks and rates of hospitalizations due to cardiovascular diseases in the municipalities of the State of Mato Grosso between the years of 2012 and 2015. Thematic and kernel maps were created for the outbreaks of fires and for hospitalizations for the years 2012 to 2015. Moran Global indices, were calculated for these variables. During the study period, 758023 outbreaks of fires and 57269 hospitalizations were identified; Moran index were significant for burn outbreaks, but for hospitalization rates, except for 2012, there was no significant spatial autocorrelation. Thematic and kernel maps show higher occurrences of fires in the north of the state, in the so-called arch of deforestation, and higher hospitalization rates in the southern region of the state, possibly due to the action of winds, displacing pollutants generated by the fires to the south of the state.