COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NUMBER OF HOSPITALIZATIONS AND DEATHS DUE TO HEART FAILURE IN RELATION TO THE CAPITALS OF BRAZIL AND THEIR RESPECTIVE REGIONS BETWEEN 2020 AND 2022

Abstract

Heart failure is a clinical syndrome that is responsible for a high number of hospitalizations and deaths in Brazil. Between 2020 and 2022, the country, like the entire world, faced the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to evaluate the variability in the number of hospitalizations and deaths due to heart failure in the capitals and regions of Brazil and verify whether the pandemic contributed to significant changes in these numbers. Thus, data collection was carried out using the government platform DATASUS and the results were displayed and tabulated electronically using the Microsoft Office Excel program. According to the present study, it was possible to demonstrate that there was a decrease in people hospitalized for heart failure between 2020 and 2021 in most regions and states – with the exception of the North and Northeast regions, where there was an increase in almost its entirety. On the other hand, there was an increase in the number of hospitalizations between 2021 and 2022 and deaths between 2020 and 2022 due to the same disease in basically all regions and capitals of Brazil. At the end of the study, it was possible to demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed directly or indirectly to the variability and heterogeneity of hospitalizations and deaths that occurred due to heart failure during the analyzed study period and this is mainly due to the fact that access to healthcare in Brazil it is uneven.