OBJECTIVE: Before the Aids pandemic, demographic transition and control programs prompted a shift in the age of incidence of tuberculosis from adults to older people in many countries. The objective of the study is to evaluate this transition in Brazil. METHODS: Tuberculosis incidence and mortality data from the Ministry of Health and population data from the Brazilian Bureau of Statistics were used to calculate age-specific incidence and mortality rates and medians. RESULTS: Among reported cases, the proportion of older people […]

Those over sixty years of age accounted for 6.6% of the total population of Brazil in 1985, in the Federal Republic of Germany this proportion was 20.3% in 1984. As early as 1950 it had been 14.5%. This proportion will not even be reached in Brazil in the year 2000 when persons aged sixty years and older are only projected to make up 8.8% of the total population. Similarly, in 1982/84 life expectancy at birth in the Federal Republic was […]

Population ageing is currently a phenomenon not only in developed countries but also in third world countries. In this paper the features of a population’s ageing and the process of epidemiological transition are discussed along with the worldwide changes in age-structure. Population statistics in Brazil and the characteristics of the elderly population are presented and analysed in the light of recent changes. The Brazilian elderly population is also discussed, particularly the issues relating to the social cost of the aged […]

OBJECTIVE: To assess potential discrepancies in reproductive patterns of women living in areas at different levels of human development by analyzing their total fertility rates and age-specific rates. METHODS: Ninety-six districts of the city of São Paulo (Brazil) were grouped in 5 areas according to their human development index (HDI). Women aged 15 to 49 years were included in the study and data was obtained from live birth certificates during the year of 1997. Data was collected from live birth […]

Current characteristics and perspectives of Brazilian demographic and epidemiological transition processes are analyzed. Results from the 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1996 censuses, new population projections and recent studies on socioeconomic and health profiles of elderly people of S. Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte are discussed. In 1995, estimated life expectancy at birth in Brazil was already over 67 years. The number of individuals aged 60 years and older – in 1995, 8.3%, of the total population – is […]