Correlation Between Covid-19 Deaths and Social Indicators in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has exposed existing vulnerabilities, particularly in health and economics. It is valid to understand how deaths and comorbidities were influenced by social vulnerability indexes. Assessed the prevalence and correlations between comorbidities related to deaths from COVID-19 and vulnerability index in 6 northeastern states of Brazil. Cross-sectional and retrospective study with secondary data in the period that presented 49% less death in the year 2020. A comparison was made between observed and expected distribution and correlations between deaths, comorbidities and vulnerability indexes. The state of Rio Grande do Norte presented correlations in almost all age groups in both sexes, with moderate and significant correlations (r= -0.404; p< 0.0001) for males of all ages and males with age ≥60 years (r = 0.440; p<0.0001). When correlating diabetes with income indexes, we obtained strong correlations for the Gini and Theil-L index (r= -0.720; p= 0.006), hypertension presented a moderate and significant correlation (r= 0.593; p= 0.047) with