Mortality from oral and oropharyngeal cancer in Brazil, between 2000 and 2013: Trends by sociodemographic strata

Generalized observations of temporal trends in mortality could mask consistent specific patterns. This study aims to analyze the trend of oral and oropharyngeal cancer mortality rates in Brazil, from 2000 to 2013, considering the differences by gender, anatomical site, age group and ethnicity. Data on oral and oropharyngeal cancer mortality were retrieved from the Mortality Information System. The trend of historical series mortality rates by stratum was estimated through a generalized linear regression by the Prais-Winsten method. In total, 61,190 deaths from oral and oropharyngeal cancer were recorded in the 2000-2013 period (mean of coefficients: 3.50 deaths/100 thousand inhabitants/year). The trend of mortality rates was stable for males and increasing for females (1.31%/year). A growing pattern was identified for men aged 20-29 years (2.92%/year) and brown men (20.36%/year). The increasing pattern was also identified for white women (2.70%/year) and brown women (8.24%/year). We can conclude that surveillance of this condition should consider the sociode-mographic differences of the population for equita-ble planning of care strategies because they reflec-ted in different trends of oral and oropharyngeal cancer mortality rates in Brazil.