The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer tackle in Brazil’s public and private healthcare system: time series study between 2014 and 2022
Ce dossier présente un ensemble d'articles concernant la prise en charge des cancers durant la crise sanitaire liée à la COVID-19
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed the healthcare systems of many countries and negatively impacted the care of other diseases.
Objective: To evaluate the trend of screening mammograms, oncological breast surgeries, and breast cancer hospitalizations in Brazil’s public and private healthcare system between 2014 and 2022.
Method: This ecological time series study uses the inflection point regression model and semester percentage change (SPC). We use the open-access dataset of the different healthcare systems in Brazil. We analyzed the trend of the variables in the pre-pandemic and the effect of the pandemic on the total time series.
Results: In 2020, compared to 2019, the decrease in screening mammograms, oncological breast surgeries, and breast cancer hospitalization was
−
41.44%, -23.13%, and
−
10.52% (public health system) and
−
29.49%, -18.96%, and
−
15.35% (private healthcare system). In the public healthcare system, the pandemic has enhanced the decreasing trend of mammograms (SPC
−
1.6% before and
−
3.4% after), has reverted the stationary trend of oncological breast surgeries to decreasing (SPC
−
1.0%), has slowed the increasing trend of breast cancer hospitalization (SPC 1.8% before and 0.9% after). In the private healthcare system, the pandemic has reverted the stationary trend of mammograms to decreasing (SPC
−
1.0%), has slowed the increasing trend of breast cancer surgeries (SPC 2.3% before and 0.8% after), has reverted the growing trend of breast cancer hospitalization (SPC 3.9%) to stationary.
Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increase in inequalities between healthcare systems, especially in breast cancer screening.
BMC Health Services Research , article en libre accès, 2024