Predicting the detection of leprosy in a hyperendemic area of Brazil: Using time series analysis

Brazil has the second highest prevalence of leprosy worldwide. Autoregressive integrated moving average models are useful tools in surveillance systems because they provide reliable forecasts from epidemiological time series.

To evaluate the temporal patterns of leprosy detection from 2001 to 2015 and forecast for 2020 in a hyperendemic area in northeastern Brazil.

A cross-sectional study was conducted using monthly leprosy detection from the Brazil information system for notifiable diseases. The Box-Jenkins method was applied to fit a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model. Forecasting models (95% prediction interval) were developed to predict leprosy detection for 2020.

A total of 44,578 cases were registered with a mean of 247.7 cases per month. The best-fitted model to make forecasts was the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average ((1,1,1); (1,1,1)). It was predicted 0.32 cases/100,000 inhabitants to January of 2016 and 0.38 cases/100,000 inhabitants to December of 2020.

This study used secondary data from Brazil information system for notifiable diseases; hence, leprosy data may be underreported.

The forecast for leprosy detection rate for December 2020 was < 1 case/100,000 inhabitants. Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model has been shown to be appropriate and could be used to forecast leprosy detection rates. Thus, this strategy can be used to facilitate prevention and elimination programmes.