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Acevedo-Mendoza WF, Buitrago Gómez DP, Atehortua-Otero MÁ, Páez MÁ, Jiménez-Rincón M, Lagos-Grisales GJ, Rodríguez-Morales AJ. Influence of socio-economic inequality measured by the Gini coefficient on meningitis incidence caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Haemophilus influenzae in Colombia, 2008-2011. Infez Med 2017; 25:8-12. [PMID: 28353449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Bacterial meningitis is an important cause of infectious neurological morbidity and mortality. Its incidence has decreased with the introduction of vaccination programmes against preventable agents. However, low-income and middle-income countries with poor access to health care still have a significant burden of the disease. Thus, the relationship between the Gini coefficient and H. influenzae and M. tuberculosis meningitis incidence in Colombia, during 2008-2011, was assessed. In this ecological study, the Gini coefficient was obtained from the Colombian Department of Statistics, incidence rates were calculated (cases/1,000,000 pop) and linear regressions were performed using the Gini coefficient, to assess the relationship between the latter and the incidence of meningitis. It was observed that when inequality increases in the Colombian departments, the incidence of meningitis also increases, with a significant association in the models (p<0.01) for both M. tuberculosis (r²=0.2382; p<0.001) and H. influenzae (r²=0.2509; p<0.001). This research suggests that high Gini coefficient values influence the incidence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Haemophilus influenzae meningitis, showing that social inequality is critical to disease occurrence. Early detection, supervised treatment, vaccination coverage, access to health care are efficient control strategies.
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MESH Headings
- Algorithms
- Colombia/epidemiology
- Developing Countries
- Haemophilus influenzae/isolation & purification
- Healthcare Disparities/statistics & numerical data
- Humans
- Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted
- Incidence
- Meningitis, Haemophilus/complications
- Meningitis, Haemophilus/diagnosis
- Meningitis, Haemophilus/epidemiology
- Meningitis, Haemophilus/microbiology
- Models, Statistical
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis/isolation & purification
- Poverty
- Reproducibility of Results
- Retrospective Studies
- Risk Factors
- Socioeconomic Factors
- Tuberculosis, Meningeal/complications
- Tuberculosis, Meningeal/diagnosis
- Tuberculosis, Meningeal/epidemiology
- Tuberculosis, Meningeal/microbiology
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Affiliation(s)
- Wilmer F Acevedo-Mendoza
- Public Health and Infection Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (UTP), Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
| | - Diana Paola Buitrago Gómez
- Public Health and Infection Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (UTP), Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
| | - Miguel Ángel Atehortua-Otero
- Public Health and Infection Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (UTP), Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
| | - Miguel Ángel Páez
- Public Health and Infection Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (UTP), Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
| | - Manuela Jiménez-Rincón
- Public Health and Infection Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (UTP), Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
| | - Guillermo J Lagos-Grisales
- Public Health and Infection Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (UTP), Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia
| | - Alfonso J Rodríguez-Morales
- Public Health and Infection Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (UTP), Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia; Organización Latinoamericana para el Fomento de la Investigación en Salud (OLFIS), Riohacha, La Guajira, Colombia
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