Epidemiologia da multimorbidade na população brasileira

Abstract

The simultaneous occurrence of two or more chronic diseases in a person is called multimorbidity. Knowing the occurrence of this condition in the population has been the subject of researches in recent years, since it impacts on the quality of life of the population, in addition to expanding the use and spending of health services. This study was based on data from the National Health Survey, a household survey conducted in Brazil in the year 2013 and the objective was to evaluate the multimorbidity profile of the Brazilian population (≥18 years) and its relations with socioeconomic, demographic, related to lifestyle variables and health services utilization. Data from 60,202 participants were included. A descriptive analysis was performed to estimate the prevalence (%) of multimorbidity considering a 95% confidence level. In order to observe the relationship between the presence of multimorbidity and the independents variables, the multivariate analysis was performed using Poisson regression with robust variance. To observe the combinations between chronic conditions, a cluster analysis was performed. The results show a considerable number of people with two or more chronic diseases in Brazil. The prevalence of multimorbity was 23.6% and was higher among women (PR = 1.46), people aged 60 years or older (PR = 6.44), among those with private health plans (PR = 1.19) and that they do not have occupation (PR = 1.21). It was also observed a higher prevalence among ex-smokers (PR = 1.38) and in those with obesity (PR = 1.74). The use of health services in the last 12 months was significantly higher for individuals with multimorbidity, among those who had medical appointments (PR = 1.31), those who had hospitalizations (PR = 2.12), and those who had Urgency and emergency at home (PR = 3.75). The most frequent combination of chronic conditions was hypertension with hypercholesterolemia (7.2%). In the conglomerate analysis four clusters of diseases were identified. The most prevalent cluster patterns were also associated with socioeconomic, demographic, and related to lifestyle variables. Female sex, smoking and obesity were common risk factors for all clusters. The prevalence of multimorbidity of the Brazilian population varied according to socioeconomic, demographic and related to lifestyle factors and also increased the use of health services, and should be considered in the planning of health services and development of strategies for prevention and treatment of multiple chronic diseases.