Covid-19 e vulnerabilidade socioambiental no município de Natal-RN : uma proposta de cartilha educativa

Abstract

The pandemic of COVID-19 has become an emerging public health problem with challenges faced by the world population, showing the consequences of social inequality as a vulnerability factor. Within this logic, the objective of this study was to describe how the socio- environmental conditions present in the different neighborhoods of the city of Natal/RN may have influenced the profile of positive cases and deaths from the disease. For this, a descriptive and analytical study was carried out following the territorial analytical typology based on the Driving Force-Pressure-Situation-Exposure-Effect-Action Environmental Health Matrix (DPSEEA) to identify the heterogeneity of conditions found in the studied municipality. Also, a dimensional reduction of the descriptors was performed through a principal components analysis. The data analyzed were used as descriptors and a generalized linear modeling, in order to describe the influence of these predictor variables on the profile of positive cases and deaths in the municipality of Natal-RN. As a result, it was found that the highest number of positive cases was found in the southern region of the city, accounting for 1800 cases over the period considered compared to the northern region with 1000 cases. However, the highest death rates were found in the northern and western regions of the municipality. The results found described that the areas with better socioeconomic and environmental indicators presented higher rates of incidence of COVID-19 (positive tests) while the areas with greater social vulnerability registered higher mortality rates for the disease. With this information, a booklet was generated with the main information regarding the pandemic of COVID-19 and maps of spatial distribution of incidence and mortality rates for this disease in the neighborhoods of the municipality studied as a technological product of the professional master's degree. Thus, this study describes how socio-environmental differences may have influenced the spatial distribution of the disease in the municipality of Natal/RN, thus reinforcing the existing health inequities as vulnerability factors facing an emerging public health situation such as the pandemic of COVID-19.