Abstract

APARICIO-LLANOS, Amada  and  MORERA-SALAS, Melvin. Análisis geográfico y temporal de la mortalidad evitable por cáncer cervicouterino en Costa Rica. Acta méd. costarric [online]. 2007, vol.49, n.3, pp.154-160. ISSN 0001-6002.

Abstract Justification and objective: Uterine cervical cancer is one of the main causes of death in Costa Rican women, more than half of those deaths occur before 65 years of age. The main objective of this investigation was to identify patterns of avoidable high mortality in different health areas following a a temporo-spacial analysis in order to prioritize interventions right from the health services level. Methods: To analyze the evolution we utilized the standardized annual mortality rate and the annual percentage of change estimated by a regression model according to Poisson.  For the geographical analysis we used the geographic representation of the standardized mortality ratio and the areas with a mortality rate significantly different from the national average.  Results: Between 1970 and 2005 avoidable mortality by uterine cervical cancer decreased approximately 2% and a mortality gradient was registered according to the age. With the geographical analysis we determined the existence of high variability between health areas (the mortality rate of the area located in percentile 95 is 18 times greater than the health area located in percentile 5) and a suggestion of a geographical pattern with rates of mortality superior to the national average both in the atlantic zone and the southern part of the country. Conclusions: The annual occurrence of tens of avoidable deaths and the geographical variability in mortality rate between health areas, should constitute an alert sign of potential problems of attention regarding this entity. We recommended improving the detection process and the opportune approach to uterine cervical cancer, prioritizing interventions in the health areas with high mortality rates.

Keywords : avoidable mortality; geographical analysis; cervicouterino Cancer.

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