Spectrum of Pollen Stored by Melipona mandacaia (Smith, 1863) (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Meliponini) in an Urban Arid Landscape

The objective of this study was to identify the species of pollen supplying plants that constitute the trophic niche of Melipona mandacaia in an urban area in the Caatinga domain (a tropical arid landscape). The collection of pollen in the colonies was carried out every 15 days, from October 2014 to September 2015. The pollen was removed directly from the storage pots in three distinct colonies. A total of 24 samples were analyzed and compared with the reference pollen collection, pollen catalogs and specialized literature. For the quantitative analysis, at least 1000 pollen grains per sample were identified. A total of 39 pollen types were identified, distributed in 17 botanical families, being one an indeterminate type. The most represented family was the Fabaceae (n = 16). The most frequent types were Leucaena leucocephala, Mimosa pudica and Melochia sp. There was a significant positive correlation between temperature and the number of pollen types throughout the study. Relative humidity and rainfall were abiotic variables that did not present a significant correlation. The rarefaction curve showed that probably most of the pollen types collected by the bees studied were sampled, since the accumulation curve showed a progressive tendency to stabilization, indicating that there was sample adequacy of the pollen types. The analysis of similarity revealed a high sharing of pollen sources between colonies

Long-term impact of a conditional cash transfer programme on maternal mortality: a nationwide analysis of Brazilian longitudinal data.

BACKGROUND: Reducing poverty and improving access to health care are two of the most effective actions to decrease maternal mortality, and conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes act on both. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of one of the world's largest CCT (the Brazilian Bolsa Familia Programme (BFP)) on maternal mortality during a period of 11 years. METHODS: The study had an ecological longitudinal design and used all 2548 Brazilian municipalities with vital statistics of adequate quality during 2004-2014. BFP municipal coverage was classified into four levels, from low to consolidated, and its duration effects were measured using the average municipal coverage of previous years. We used negative binomial multivariable regression models with fixed-effects specifications, adjusted for all relevant demographic, socioeconomic, and healthcare variables. RESULTS: BFP was significantly associated with reductions of maternal mortality proportionally to its levels of coverage and years of implementation, with a rate ratio (RR) reaching 0.88 (95%CI 0.81-0.95), 0.84 (0.75-0.96) and 0.83 (0.71-0.99) for intermediate, high and consolidated BFP coverage over the previous 11 years. The BFP duration effect was stronger among young mothers (RR 0.77; 95%CI 0.67-0.96). BFP was also associated with reductions in the proportion of pregnant women with no prenatal visits (RR 0.73; 95%CI 0.69-0.77), reductions in hospital case-fatality rate for delivery (RR 0.78; 95%CI 0.66-0.94) and increases in the proportion of deliveries in hospital (RR 1.05; 95%CI 1.04-1.07). CONCLUSION: Our findings show that a consolidated and durable CCT coverage could decrease maternal mortality, and these long-term effects are stronger among poor mothers exposed to CCT during their childhood and adolescence, suggesting a CCT inter-generational effect. Sustained CCT coverage could reduce health inequalities and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 3.1, and should be preserved during the current global economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Ethnoracial inequalities and child mortality in Brazil: a nationwide longitudinal study of 19 million newborn babies

BACKGROUND: Racism is a social determinant of health inequities. In Brazil, racial injustices lead to poor outcomes in maternal and child health for Black and Indigenous populations, including greater risks of pregnancy-related complications; decreased access to antenatal, delivery, and postnatal care; and higher childhood mortality rates. In this study, we aimed to estimate inequalities in childhood mortality rates by maternal race and skin colour in a cohort of more than 19 million newborns in Brazil. METHODS: We did a nationwide population-based, retrospective cohort study using linked data on all births and deaths in Brazil between Jan 1, 2012, and Dec 31, 2018. The data consisted of livebirths followed up to age 5 years, death, or Dec 31, 2018. Data for livebirths were extracted from the National Information System for livebirths, SINASC, and for deaths from the Mortality Information System, SIM. The final sample consisted of complete data for all cases regarding maternal race and skin colour, and no inconsistencies were present between date of birth and death after linkage. We fitted Cox proportional hazard regression models to calculate the crude and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for the association between maternal race and skin colour and all-cause and cause-specific younger than age 5 mortality rates, by age subgroups. We calculated the trend of HRs (and 95% CI) by time of observation (calendar year) to indicate trends in inequalities. FINDINGS: From the 20 526 714 livebirths registered in SINASC between Jan 1, 2012, and Dec 31, 2018, 238 436 were linked to death records identified from SIM. After linkage, 1 010 871 records were excluded due to missing data on maternal race or skin colour or inconsistent date of death. 19 515 843 livebirths were classified by mother's race, of which 224 213 died. Compared with children of White mothers, mortality risk for children younger than age 5 years was higher among children of Indigenous (HR 1·98 [95% CI 1·92-2·06]), Black (HR 1·39 [1·36-1·41]), and Brown or Mixed race (HR 1·19 [1·18-1·20]) mothers. The highest hazard ratios were observed during the post-neonatal period (Indigenous, HR 2·78 [95% CI 2·64-2·95], Black, HR 1·54 [1·48-1·59]), and Brown or Mixed race, HR 1·25 [1·23-1·27]) and between the ages of 1 year and 4 years (Indigenous, HR 3·82 [95% CI 3·52-4·15]), Black, HR 1·51 [1·42-1·60], and Brown or Mixed race, HR 1·30 [1·26-1·35]). Children of Indigenous (HR 16·39 [95% CI 12·88-20·85]), Black (HR 2·34 [1·78-3·06]), and Brown or Mixed race mothers (HR 2·05 [1·71-2·45]) had a higher risk of death from malnutrition than did children of White mothers. Similar patterns were observed for death from diarrhoea (Indigenous, HR 14·28 [95% CI 12·25-16·65]; Black, HR 1·72 [1·44-2·05]; and Brown or Mixed race mothers, HR 1·78 [1·61-1·98]) and influenza and pneumonia (Indigenous, HR 6·49 [95% CI 5·78-7·27]; Black, HR 1·78 [1·62-1·96]; and Brown or Mixed race mothers, HR 1·60 [1·51-1·69]). INTERPRETATION: Substantial ethnoracial inequalities were observed in child mortality in Brazil, especially among the Indigenous and Black populations. These findings demonstrate the importance of regular racial inequality assessments and monitoring. We suggest implementing policies to promote ethnoracial equity to reduce the impact of racism on child health. FUNDING: MCTI/CNPq/MS/SCTIE/Decit/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Grandes Desafios Brasil, Desenvolvimento Saudável para Todas as Crianças, and Wellcome Trust core support grant awarded to CIDACS-Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health

Conditional cash transfer program and child mortality: A cross-sectional analysis nested within the 100 Million Brazilian Cohort.

BACKGROUND: Brazil has made great progress in reducing child mortality over the past decades, and a parcel of this achievement has been credited to the Bolsa Família program (BFP). We examined the association between being a BFP beneficiary and child mortality (1-4 years of age), also examining how this association differs by maternal race/skin color, gestational age at birth (term versus preterm), municipality income level, and index of quality of BFP management. METHODS AND FINDINGS: This is a cross-sectional analysis nested within the 100 Million Brazilian Cohort, a population-based cohort primarily built from Brazil's Unified Registry for Social Programs (Cadastro Único). We analyzed data from 6,309,366 children under 5 years of age whose families enrolled between 2006 and 2015. Through deterministic linkage with the BFP payroll datasets, and similarity linkage with the Brazilian Mortality Information System, 4,858,253 children were identified as beneficiaries (77%) and 1,451,113 (23%) were not. Our analysis consisted of a combination of kernel matching and weighted logistic regressions. After kernel matching, 5,308,989 (84.1%) children were included in the final weighted logistic analysis, with 4,107,920 (77.4%) of those being beneficiaries and 1,201,069 (22.6%) not, with a total of 14,897 linked deaths. Overall, BFP participation was associated with a reduction in child mortality (weighted odds ratio [OR] = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.79 to 0.88; p < 0.001). This association was stronger for preterm children (weighted OR = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.68 to 0.90; p < 0.001), children of Black mothers (weighted OR = 0.74; 95% CI: 0.57 to 0.97; p < 0.001), children living in municipalities in the lowest income quintile (first quintile of municipal income: weighted OR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.62 to 0.82; p < 0.001), and municipalities with better index of BFP management (5th quintile of the Decentralized Management Index: weighted OR = 0.76; 95% CI: 0.66 to 0.88; p < 0.001). The main limitation of our methodology is that our propensity score approach does not account for possible unmeasured confounders. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis showed that loss of nameless death records before linkage may have resulted in overestimation of the associations between BFP participation and mortality, with loss of statistical significance in municipalities with greater losses of data and change in the direction of the association in municipalities with no losses. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we observed a significant association between BFP participation and child mortality in children aged 1-4 years and found that this association was stronger for children living in municipalities in the lowest quintile of wealth, in municipalities with better index of program management, and also in preterm children and children of Black mothers. These findings reinforce the evidence that programs like BFP, already proven effective in poverty reduction, have a great potential to improve child health and survival. Subgroup analysis revealed heterogeneous results, useful for policy improvement and better targeting of BFP

Níveis disfuncionais de ansiedade relacionada ao Coronavírus em estudantes de medicina: Dysfunctional levels of Coronavirus-related anxiety in medical students

As preocupações com a saúde mental das pessoas afetadas pela pandemia de coronavírus não foram abordadas adequadamente. Isso é surpreendente, uma vez que tragédias em massa, particularmente aquelas que envolvem doenças infecciosas, muitas vezes desencadeiam ondas de medo e ansiedade elevados que são conhecidos por causar perturbações maciças no comportamento e no bem-estar psicológico de muitos na população. Assim, o objetivo desse trabalho é demonstrar os níveis disfuncionais de ansiedade relacionada ao coronavírus em estudantes de medicina. Para isso, foi realizado uma revisão sistemática sobre a temática

Area deprivation measures used in Brazil: a scoping review

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To describe and assess currently used area-based measures of deprivation in Brazil for health research, to the purpose of informing the development of a future small area deprivation index. METHODS We searched five electronic databases and seven websites of Brazilian research institutions and governmental agencies. Inclusion criteria were: studies proposing measures of deprivation for small areas (i.e., finer geography than country-level) in Brazil, published in English, Portuguese or Spanish. After data-extraction, results were tabulated according to the area level the deprivation measure was created for and to the dimensions of deprivation or poverty included in the measures. A narrative synthesis approach was used to summarize the measures available, highlighting their utility for public health research. RESULTS A total of 7,199 records were retrieved, 126 full-text articles were assessed after inclusion criteria and a final list of 30 articles was selected. No small-area deprivation measures that have been applied to the whole of Brazil were found. Existing measures were mainly used to study infectious and parasitic diseases. Few studies used the measures to assess inequalities in mortality and no studies used the deprivation measure to evaluate the impact of social programs. CONCLUSIONS No up-to-date small area-based deprivation measure in Brazil covers the whole country. There is a need to develop such an index for Brazil to measure and monitor inequalities in health and mortality, particularly to assess progress in Brazil against the Sustainable Development Goal targets for different health outcomes, showing progress by socioeconomic groups

The effect of primary health care on tuberculosis in a nationwide cohort of 7·3 million Brazilian people: a quasi-experimental study.

BACKGROUND: Universal health coverage is one of the WHO End TB Strategy priority interventions and could be achieved-particularly in low-income and middle-income countries-through the expansion of primary health care. We evaluated the effects of one of the largest primary health-care programmes in the world, the Brazilian Family Health Strategy (FHS), on tuberculosis morbidity and mortality using a nationwide cohort of 7·3 million individuals over a 10-year study period. METHODS: We analysed individuals who entered the 100 Million Brazilians Cohort during the period Jan 1, 2004, to Dec 31, 2013, and compared residents in municipalities with no FHS coverage with residents in municipalities with full FHS coverage. We used a cohort design with multivariable Poisson regressions, adjusted for all relevant demographic and socioeconomic variables and weighted with inverse probability of treatment weighting, to estimate the effect of FHS on tuberculosis incidence, mortality, cure, and case fatality. We also performed a range of stratifications and sensitivity analyses. FINDINGS: FHS exposure was associated with lower tuberculosis incidence (rate ratio [RR] 0·78, 95% CI 0·72-0·84) and mortality (0·72, 0·55-0·94), and was positively associated with tuberculosis cure rates (1·04, 1·00-1·08). FHS was also associated with a decrease in tuberculosis case-fatality rates, although this was not statistically significant (RR 0·84, 95% CI 0·55-1·30). FHS associations were stronger among the poorest individuals for all the tuberculosis indicators. INTERPRETATION: Community-based primary health care could strongly reduce tuberculosis morbidity and mortality and decrease the unequal distribution of the tuberculosis burden in the most vulnerable populations. During the current marked rise in global poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, investments in primary health care could help protect against the expected increases in tuberculosis incidence worldwide and contribute to the attainment of the End TB Strategy goals. FUNDING: TB Modelling and Analysis Consortium (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Wellcome Trust, and Brazilian Ministry of Health. TRANSLATION: For the Portuguese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section