A survey by the Children's Health Observatory of Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, known in Brazil as Observa Infância, was released this Wednesday (26) by the Fiocruz Agency. It shows that the malnutrition rate among babies is rising and, consequently, the hospitalization rate around the country. In 2021, Brazil’s National Health Service (SUS, in Portuguese) recorded an average of eight daily hospitalizations of babies due to malnutrition, which is the result of nutritional deficiencies in children under one year old.
In total, there were 2,979 hospitalizations in this age group during the second year of the pandemic (2021), the highest number in the past 13 years. As of August 30, 2022, the country's public health system recorded a total of 2,115 cases of malnutrition-related hospitalizations of babies, which brings the daily average hospitalization rate to 8,7, an increase of 7% compared to the previous year.
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The data also shows that Black babies (in Brazil, a person who is "parda" or "preta") accounted for two-thirds of all malnutrition hospitalizations between January 2018 and August 2022 in the public health sector. To make the calculation, it was considered only the cases in which the race or skin color of the baby was registered. Between 2018 and 2021, the country recorded 13,202 hospitalizations for malnutrition among children under one year old. Of all these cases, 5,246 were Black babies, but there is a lack of information about the race or skin color of one-third of the hospitalized babies.
In our information systems, we still need to improve identification by race and color. However, with the data we [already] have, it is possible to say that we have a higher proportion of Black children hospitalized for malnutrition”, says Cristiano Boccolini, a researcher at the Institute of Communication and Scientific and Technological Information in Health (Icict/Fiocruz) and coordinator of Observa Infância.
To calculate the number of hospitalizations due to malnutrition (2009-2021), Boccolini worked with data from the Hospital Information System (SIH, in Portuguese), consulted on October 18, 2022. He used data collected on October 24 to compile the 2022 records.
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To calculate the hospitalization and death rates, the process also included data from the Information System on Live Births (Sinasc) and Mortality Information System (SIM), available until 2020. The data collected from SIH can be altered due to the time necessary to finish the registrations in the system.
Hospitalizations rate
Since 2016, the hospitalization rate of babies under one year old due to malnutrition has been rising in Brazil. However, it reached its worst number in 2021, with 113 hospitalizations for every 100,000 live births, an increase of 51% compared to 2011, when the country recorded 75 hospitalizations of babies for every 100,000 live births, the lowest rate for the period analyzed, considering the complete years (2009-2021).
The trend is different from that seen in the number of deaths and death rate caused by the same health problem in this age group. These numbers have been falling steadily since 2009 and reached the lowest level in 2020, the last year for which data were available.
The country’s south region was the only one that recorded a fall in cases of malnutrition-related hospitalizations of babies under one year old between 2020 and 2021. The midwest region was the one that recorded the highest increase: 30% between the first and second year of the pandemic.
Even though, the most severe hospitalization rate for malnutrition was recorded in the northeast region, where 171 babies under one year old were hospitalized for every 100,000 live births in 2021, 51% above the national rate.
*From Fiocruz News Agency
