Eduardo A. Hernández-Muñoz, Unidad de Medicina Familiar No. 181, Epidemiología, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, Jalisco, México
Eugenio V. Zavala-Sánchez, Servicio de Epidemiología, Hospital General de Zona No. 89, IMSS, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
Benjamín González-Aguilera, Área de Atención Integral, Coordinación de Unidades de Atención de Primer Nivel, Servicios de Salud, IMSS Bienestar, Ciudad de México, México
Jesús F. González-Roldán, Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Anáhuac Campus Norte, Estado de México, México
Carlos Castillo-Salgado, Departamento de Epidemiología, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Maryland, Baltimore, Estados Unidos
Background: Globally, > 1,200,000 cases and > 3,250 deaths occur annually from scorpion sting envenomation (SSE). Twentyfive percent of cases occur in Mexico. Objective: To describe the temporal and spatial trends of SSE in Mexico and assess its association with social determinants of health and inequality using the social lag index (SLI) and the Gini index. Material and methods: We conducted an ecological study using open data from the Morbidity Yearbooks of the General Directorate of Epidemiology and deaths from the General Directorate of Health Information from 1998 to 2022. Trends were analyzed using linear regression and correlation by Spearman’s coefficient. A p-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The annual mean of cases was 270,420 SD ± 28,610. There were 1,212 deaths with no differences between sex (p = 0.17). A negative trend in deaths was observed (β = -0.0035, p < 0.05). In children under 10 years of age occurred 76.2% of deaths. The mortality rate by municipality and social gap index (SGI) were strongly positive correlated, r = 0.7, p < 0.0001 while mortality rate by municipality and Gini index were very weakly positive correlated, r = 0.1, p = 0.03. Conclusions: Six states accounted for 73% and 75% of cases and deaths, respectively. Mortality analysis showed an apparent spatial clustering of deaths in six areas.
Keywords: Scorpions. Epidemiology. Tropical neglected diseases. Mexico.