Citation

de Moraes FF, de Magalhaes Camara V, Froes Asmus CIR. Ann. Glob. Health 2017; 83(2): 227-233.

Affiliation

Public Health Institute/School of Medicine, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Electronic address: carmenfroes@iesc.ufrj.br.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.aogh.2017.02.003

PMID

28619397

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This report presents the Brazilian experience on the elaboration of a matrix of children's environmental health indicators to the Brazilian Health Surveillance System. This experience was part of a project with the financial support of the Ministry of Health of Brazil to develop appropriate indicators for identification, measuring, and monitoring of the environmental risk factors to the children's health.

METHODS: The methodology adopted for the development of the matrix of indicators of children's environmental health to Brazil comprised 3 steps. In the first step, the main causes of morbidity and mortality in the Brazilian population, aged 0-14 years, were identified, according to the data available from the Ministry of Health. The second step consisted of the identification of the Brazilian public-access information systems, with available official data regarding environmental, health, and socioeconomic conditions. In the third step, a preliminary matrix was elaborated. Correlation analyses were done to determine the indicators that would constitute the final matrix.

FINDINGS: The selected indicators allowed the identification and surveillance of cancer, injuries, adverse birth outcomes, diarrheic and respiratory diseases, associated with environmental risk factors, in the Brazilian child population. The existing Brazilian official information systems provided data with the necessary quality for the construction of children's environmental health indicators. Nevertheless, some official systems on health information presented limitations related to the data availability over the course of time and timeliness of data capture. Concerning the environmental information, the major limitation was accessibility.

CONCLUSIONS: A matrix of indicators of children's environmental health to Brazil can come to contribute to the implementation of a surveillance system of children's exposure to environmental contaminants in Brazil.

Copyright © 2017 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

children’s health; environmental health; environmental pollutants; indicators; information systems