Association between primary care coverage and breast cancer mortality in Brazil

Abstract

Breast cancer early detection is the major strategy for mortality rates reduction. In Brazil, Primary Health Care is an important strategy for public health promotion. To analyse the association between breast cancer mortality and primary health care indicators in Brazilian municipalities, data on breast cancer mortality and primary healthcare coverage of the 5,700 Brazilian municipalities were collected from the Department of Informatics of the Brazilian Unified Health System. We collected data on the deaths of women living in Brazil in 2010 with breast cancer. Breast cancer mortality was calculated by 100,000 women and age-standardised from the World Health Organisation population. We studied the coverage of primary health care, family health team and community health agents. We found that increase of both primary care indexes was related to increasing of the breast cancer mortality. Additionally, improving the scholarly and reducing the income inequality was related to reducing the breast cancer mortality. Strategies to improve the quality of primary care, reduce the income inequality and improve elementary scholarly should be taken into account in the development of public policies in the Brazilian municipalities to reduce breast cancer in Brazilian municipalities.