Identifying Hotspots of People Diagnosed of Tuberculosis with Addiction to Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs through a Geospatial Intelligence Application in Communities from Southern Brazil

Alessandro Rolim Scholze*, Felipe Mendes Delpino, Luana Seles Alves, Josilene Dália Alves, Thaís Zamboni Berra, Antônio Carlos Vieira Ramos, Miguel Fuentealba-Torres, Inês Fronteira, Ricardo Alexandre Arcêncio

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

(1) Background: tuberculosis (TB) is considered one of the leading causes of death world-wide by a single infectious agent. This study aimed to identify hotspots of people diagnosed with tuberculosis and abusive use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs in communities through a geospa-tial intelligence application; (2) Methods: an ecological study with a spatio-temporal approach. We considered tuberculosis cases diagnosed and registered in the Notifiable Diseases Information System, which presented information on alcoholism, smoking, and drug abuse. Spatial Variations in Temporal Trends (SVTT) and scan statistics were applied for the identification of Hotspots; (3) Results: between the study period, about 29,499 cases of tuberculosis were reported. When we applied the SVTT for alcoholism, three Hotspots were detected, one of which was protective (RR: 0.08–CI95%: 0.02–0.32) and two at risk (RR: 1.42–CI95%: 1.11–1.73; RR: 1.39–CI95%: 1.28–1.50). Regarding smoking, two risk clusters were identified (RR: 1.15–CI95%: 1.01–1.30; RR: 1.68–CI95%: 1.54–1.83). For other drugs, a risk cluster was found (RR: 1.13–CI95%: 0.99–1.29) and two protections (RR: 0.70–CI95%: 0.63–0.77; RR: 0.76–CI95%: 0.65–0.89); (4) Conclusion: it was evidenced that in the communities being studied, there exists a problem of TB with drug addiction. The disordered use of these substances may harm a person’s brain and behavior and lead to an inability to continue their treatment, putting the community at further risk for TB.

Original languageEnglish
Article number82
JournalTropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
Volume7
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 24 May 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • alcoholism
  • illicit drugs
  • spatial analysis
  • tobacco use disorder
  • tuberculosis

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