Does the mortality profile due to causes attributable to obesity resemble the interest of the Argentine population and scientific community?

Abstract

In Argentina, the main causes of death attributable to obesity are Heart Disease (HD), Malignant Tumors (MT), Cerebrovascular Diseases (CVD) and Diabetes. There are currently a large number of technologies and applications that are used in processes and procedures related to the health area, to optimize resources and improve the integrated design of health policies and programs.

The Objective of this study was to compare the mortality profile attributable to obesity with the interest of the general population - reflected in their searches on the Internet – and the number of scientific publications that reflects the researcher’s interest, in Argentina during 2002-2018.

An observational and longitudinal descriptive study was carried out. Using vital statistics, crude mortality rates (CMR) were calculated for causes attributable to obesity. To quantify scientific productions, searches for publications in MEDLINE and LILACS were systematized for every year of the period 2002-2018. HD, MT, ECV and diabetes were established as keywords and filters by country of affiliation of researchers (Argentina) were applied. A relative popularity index (RPI, Google Trends) was used and it summarizes the searches performed by users in this web browser, using keywords and filters mentioned. Joinpoint regression analysis was performed to assess temporal trends (2002-2018) of CMR by cause and number of publications/year.  

It was observed that the highest CMR's were due to HD, which showed a significant decreasing trend in the period studied (p <0.01). On the other hand, the most frequently addressed pathology in the MEDLINE and LILACS articles was cancer. In MEDLINE there was a growing trend throughout the period studied (p <0.01) for all pathologies, while in LILACS only items related to diabetes (p <0.01) increased and decreased those on HD and cancer (p <0.01). According to the RPI, cancer was the most searched pathology in the entire period studied, while the HD had the lowest RPI.

The interest of the population and researchers focused mainly on cancer, although HDs were the main causes of death attributable to obesity in Argentina throughout the period studied.