ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN DENGUE AND SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES IN CAPITALS OF THE BRAZILIAN NORTHEAST BY CLUSTER ANALYSIS

Abstract

Abstract This article aims to identify the level of similarity between dengue and climatic, sociodemographic and sanitation variables in Brazilian Northeast capitals between 2001 and 2012, by cluster analysis, an explanatory technique used on multivariate data to verify the interrelationship between groups formed by the similar distances among its components. The results, validated by Spearman, showed high correlation (p-value ≤ 0.0001) of dengue with: female subjects between 10-19 years old and over 79 years old; the annual total of urban public waste collected by all types of agents, especially private agents; and the total extent of area swept by public agents, suggesting that a higher volume of residues would lead to higher occurrence of mosquito breeding sites transmitting the disease. There was also some correlation with the indexes of water and sewage treatment, suggesting that it is related to the maintenance of the mosquito-borne life cycle due to the water availability.