Hospitalizações por câncer bucal e orofaríngeo no Brasil pelo SUS: impactos da pandemia de covid-19

Amanda Ramos da  Cunha; Sofia Rafaela Maito  Velasco; Fernando Neves Hugo; José Leopoldo Ferreira Antunes

doi:10.11606/s1518-8787.2023057004708

Authors

Amanda Ramos da Cunha Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Saúde Pública. Departamento de Epidemiologia. São Paulo, SP, Brasil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6358-5582
Sofia Rafaela Maito Velasco Centro de Estudos, Pesquisa e Prática em APS e Redes. Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. São Paulo, SP, Brasil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4323-0848
Fernando Neves Hugo Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Faculdade de Odontologia. Departamento de Odontologia Preventiva e Social. Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2222-7719
José Leopoldo Ferreira Antunes Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Saúde Pública. Departamento de Epidemiologia. São Paulo, SP, Brasil https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3972-9723

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/s1518-8787.2023057004708

Keywords:

Mouth Neoplasms, Oropharyngeal Neoplasms, Hospital Care, Unified Health System, COVID-19, Pandemics

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the impact of the different phases of the covid-19 pandemic on hospitalizations for oral (CaB) and oropharyngeal (CaOR) cancer in Brazil, carried out within the scope of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS). METHODS: We obtained data regarding hospital admissions due to CaB and CaOR between January 2018 and August 2021 from the SUS Hospital Information System, analyzing hospital admissions as rates per 100,000 inhabitants. We divided the pandemic (January 2020 to August 2021) and pre-pandemic (January 2018 to December 2019) periods into four-month periods, comparing the pandemic period rates with analogous rates for the pre-pandemic period – for Brazil, by macro-region and by a group of procedures performed during hospitalization. We also analyzed the impact of the pandemic on the average cost of hospitalizations, expressing the results in percentage change. RESULTS: Rates of hospitalization in the SUS due to CaB and CaOR decreased during the pandemic in Brazil. The most significant reduction occurred in the second four-month period of 2020 (18.42%), followed by decreases in the third four-month period of 2020 (17.76%) and the first and second four-month periods of 2021 (respectively, 14.64% and 17.07%), compared with 2019. The South and Southeast showed the most expressive and constant reductions between the different phases of the pandemic. Hospitalizations for clinical procedures suffered a more significant decrease than for surgical procedures. In Brazil, the average expenditure per hospitalization in the four-month pandemic period was higher than in the reference periods. CONCLUSION: After more than a year of the pandemic’s beginning in Brazil, the SUS hospital care network for CaB and CaOR had yet to be re-established. The repressed demand for hospitalizations for these diseases, which have fast evolution, will possibly result in delays in treatment, negatively impacting the survival of these patients. Future studies are needed to monitor this situation.

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Hospitalizations for oral and oropharyngeal cancer in Brazil by the SUS: impacts of the covid-19 pandemic

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