Tendencia de la mortalidad por fibrosis pulmonar idiopática en Chile

Abstract

Background: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is one of the chronic respiratory diseases in adults with the greatest impact and high case fatality rate. Various epidemiological studies show progressive trends towards increasing IPF mortality rates. In Chile there are no national reports on country and regional trends in IPF mortality rates. The objective of this study is to determine trends in mortality due to IPF in Chile from year 2002 to 2015. Method: Epidemiological study of ecological design based on information from public databases of vital statistics of the Department of Health Sta- tistics and Information (DEIS) and the National Institute of Statistics (INE) of the Ministry of Health of Chile. Crude mortality rates due to IPF in the population aged 45 years and over in both sexes were obtained from years 2002 to 2015. Besides the adjusted mortality rates for sex and age by region, the monthly frequency of IPF deaths during the same period and the average mortality rates by Chilean regions were calculated. Results: A progressive increasing trend in the crude national IPF mortality rate was observed between years 2002 to 2015, which went from 18.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2002 to 24.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 with a slope of ascent per year of +0.27 per 100,000 inhabitants (p = 0.013); female rates were higher than men rates, but without differences in the slopes between sexes; in the vast majority of the regions the rates showed significant upward trends with the higher ones in the northern regions of Chile. A seasonal behavior of the death’s frequency was observed being the highest in the winter term. Conclusions: Mortality rates due to IPF in Chile show a progressive upward trend, with marked regional differences which leads to consider, among other factors, environmental influence and air and soil contamination that should be investigated to carry out public health interventions that allow reducing the mortality of this disease in our country.