Abstract
ABSTRACTOBJECTIVE To examine the factors associated with hospital use and their frequency in a nationally representative sample of the Brazilian population aged 50 years or older.METHODS Data from the baseline of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil), conducted in 2015-2016, were used. Predisposing, enabling and need factors for the use of health services were considered. The analyzes were based on the Hurdle regression model and on estimates of population attributable risks.RESULTS Among 9,389 participants, 10.2% had been hospitalized in the previous 12 months. After adjusting for potential confounding variables, statistically significant associations (p < 0.05) were observed for need factors (previous medical diagnosis for chronic diseases and limitation to perform basic activities of daily living) and for enabling factors (living in a rural area and in the North and Midwest regions of the country). The analysis of population attributable risks (PAR) showed a hierarchy of the need factors for the occurrence of hospitalizations, with higher contributions by stroke (PAR = 10.7%) and cardiovascular disease (PAR = 10.0%), followed by cancer (PAR = 8.9%), difficulty to perform basic activities of daily living (PAR = 6.8%), depression (PAR = 5.5%), diabetes (PAR = 4.4% ) and hypertension (PAR = 2.2%).CONCLUSIONS Four of the major diseases associated with hospitalizations (stroke, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension) are part of the Brazilian list of primary care-sensitive hospitalizations. These results show that there is a window of opportunity to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations among older Brazilian adults through effective primary care actions.
Highlights
The rapid aging of the population poses numerous challenges to Brazilian society and to other middle- and low-income countries[1]
Four of the major diseases associated with hospitalizations are part of the Brazilian list of primary care-sensitive hospitalizations
These results show that there is a window of opportunity to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations among older Brazilian adults through effective primary care actions
Summary
The rapid aging of the population poses numerous challenges to Brazilian society and to other middle- and low-income countries[1]. In 2016, the Brazilian Public Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS) performed more than 11 million hospital admissions at a cost of approximately 14 billion reais (i.e., USD 4 billion). Of these hospitalizations, 36% were for people aged 50 or older, which consumed about 48.5% of the above-mentioned resources[2]. The magnitude of health spending will be strongly influenced by the tension between healthy aging and those with the greatest burden of illness and dependence These data reinforce the need for the health system to remove barriers to access, promote effective coordination of care, and focus on health promotion and the prevention of morbidity and disability[3]
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