Questioning both health and development: a study case on Petrochemical Pole of Suape in Pernambuco, Brazil

Abstract

The correlation between populations’ health and socioeconomic planning of different communities has undisputedly become evident, especially because its determination factors are not only biological, but also historical and social. In Brazil, this debate was set when health started to be considered a social issue and it was highlighted by the time postulations on development, underdevelopment and dependence were precisely widespread. This descriptive/exploratory study - developed with quantitative data - aims at analyzing the socio-sanitary conditions of the population that lives in a specific industrial developing center in Pernambuco, Brazil, which follows strategies that have been formulated in light of the new developmentalist ideology. We analyzed socio-sanitary conditions through a set of socioeconomic and health indicators, and this region’s GDP and GDP per capita values confirm a significant economic growth, even though, at the same time, income inequality and concentration of wealth have also grown. Thus, we concluded that this economic model does not guarantee improvements on populations standard of living, but causes serious medical and social problems.