[Socioeconomic inequalities and premature mortality due to cardiovascular diseases in Brazil].

Objective: To investigate the relationship between some indicators of socioeconomic status and adult mortality due to cardiovascular diseases in Brazil.

Methods: Adult deaths (aged between 35 and 64 years) due to cardiovascular diseases and subgroups of ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular-hypertensive diseases were assessed during the period from 1999 to 2001. Data was obtained from the National Mortality Information System.

[Life expectancy with functional disability in elderly persons in São Paulo, Brazil].

Objective: For persons 60 years of age or older living in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, in the year 2000 to estimate four characteristics: (1) life expectancy free of functional disability, (2) life expectancy with functional disability, (3) life expectancy with functional disability but without dependence, and (4) life expectancy with functional disability and dependence.

Methods: The estimates of the four characteristics were calculated by means of a life table constructed based on the method proposed by Sullivan. The basic data used for the calculations were the elderly population estimated for the city of São Paulo as of mid-2000, obtained from the demographic censuses of 1991 and 2000, and deaths in the elderly population, obtained from the State Data Analysis System Foundation (Fundação Sistema Estadual de Análise de Dados, or SEADE) of the state of São Paulo.

[Trends in avoidable causes of infant mortality in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1984 to 1998].

Objective: To analyze the infant mortality trend in a metropolitan area, from 1984 to 1998. The main focus was on avoidable causes of neonatal and post-neonatal mortality.

Methods: Sources of data were the Sistema de Informacoes em Mortalidade do Ministerio da Saude (SIM-MS) [Mortality Information System of the Ministry of Health] and Fundacao Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE) [Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics Foundation] (official live birth and death records) for the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, in the State of Minas Gerais.