Relationships Among Sanitation, Health and Child Morbidity and Mortality: A Portrait of Brazil

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SANITATION, HEALTH AND CHILD MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY: A PORTRAIT OF BRAZIL

 Introduction: the strengthening of the relationship between health and environment is becoming an essential element in the improvement of health indicators and quality of life. Objective: to analyze the sanitation situation of families enrolled in the Brazilian Family Health Units and its relation with the indicators of child morbidity and mortality. Methods: data were obtained from the Primary Care Information System (SIAB) for the month of July 2011. The sanitation data collected refers to the type of water supply and treatment, waste management and collection of sewage. Regarding child morbidity and mortality due to diarrhea, the number of deaths of newborns under 28 days old and the number of hospitalizations of children under 2 years old were selected. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Results: during the study period, Brazil had 8,560,193 families enrolled in the Family Health Units, and 80.29%, 83.24%, 52.92% and 51.52% of these families had, respectively, water supply by public system, collected garbage, treated water and sewage system. These data are varied, according to the Brazilian regions, i. e., in the region with the highest income per capita of the country (Southeast), 78.69% of the enrolled families received sewage collection service; however, in the region with the lowest income per capita (Northeast), only 24.11% of the enrolled families received sewage collection service. This region accounted for 38.86% of the cases of diarrhea diagnosed in children under 2 years old, and 42.85% of the deaths of newborns under 28 days old due to diarrhea. Conclusions: Investing in sanitation infrastructure means to promote health and prevent disease, which in the long term may result in less burden to public health services and better health indicators.