Spatial assessment of advanced-stage diagnosis and lung cancer mortality in Brazil

The high incidence and mortality rates make lung cancer a global public health issue. Socioeconomic conditions and the provision of health services may be associated with this reality. This study investigates the spatial distribution of advanced-stage diagnosis and mortality due to lung cancer and its association with the healthcare services supply and demographic and socioeconomic indicators in Brazil. This is an ecological study with 161 Intermediate Regions of Urban Articulation. Mortality data were extracted from the Mortality Information System, and the cases of lung cancer were obtained from the Integrator of Hospital-Based Cancer Registries from 2011 to 2015. Analyses employed Moran’s I, local indicators of spatial association, and the multivariable model. The proportion of advanced-stage diagnosis was 85.28% (95% CI 83.31–87.10) and was positively associated with the aging rate (Moran’s I 0.11; p = 0.02), per capita income (Moran’s I 0.05; p = 0.01) and negatively associated with Gini Index (Moran’s I -0.16; p = 0.01). The mean age-adjusted mortality rates was 12.82 deaths/100,000 inhabitants (SD 5.12). The age-adjusted mortality rates for lung cancer presented a positive and statistically significant spatial association with all demographic, socioeconomic and healthcare services supply indicators, except for the "density of family health teams" (Moran’s I -0.02 p = 0.28). The multivariable model for the mortality rates was constituted by the variables “Density of facilities licensed in oncology”, “Per capita income”, and “Health plan coverage”. The per capita income presented positive association and health plan coverage negative association with age-adjusted mortality rates. Both associations were statistically significant. The variable density of facilities licensed in oncology showed no significant association with age-adjusted mortality rates. There is a high proportion of advanced-stage diagnosis across the Brazilian territory and inequalities in lung cancer mortality, which are correlated with the most developed areas of the country.