Social and territorial inequalities in the mortality of children and adolescents due to COVID-19 in Brazil

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the mortality rate of COVID-19 among children and adolescents aged 0 to 14 years. Methods: Ecological and exploratory study of children’s mortality rate by COVID-19 in Brazil, from February to October 2020. The study used the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome database to collect the data and made the analysis using descriptive spatial statistics by age and race/color classification. Result: The mortality rate due to COVID-19 represented 1.34 deaths per one hundred thousand in the total group evaluated. The age group with the highest frequency and mortality rate was 1 to 4 years of age. There is a higher frequency of deaths in the brown and Indigenous population. Conclusion: The distribution of deaths due to COVID-19 is unequal in the national territory, and there is a wide variation in the mortality rate by age and race/color groups.