Abstract
BackgroundConsidering the high socioeconomic inequalities prevailing in Brazil and lifestyle as a strong determinant of morbidity and premature mortality, our purpose was to evaluate the degree of socioeconomic disparities in the prevalence of health behaviors among Brazilian adult population using data from the 2013 Brazilian National Health Survey.MethodBased on a sample of 49,025 individuals aged 20 to 59 years, we estimated the prevalence of several health behaviors and a score of unhealthy behaviors according to gender, education, race/color and possession of private health insurance. The prevalence ratios adjusted by age and gender were estimated by means of multiple Poisson regression and the analyses took into account the sampling design.ResultsSignificant social inequalities were identified in the Brazilian adults. Higher prevalence of current smoking, leisure-time physical inactivity, sedentary lifestyle, whole milk consumption and low ingestion of greens, vegetables, and fruits were observed among the less educated, in the non-white population, and among those without private health insurance. Higher prevalence of heavy episodic drinking was found in the non-white population, but no difference in the consumption of fatty meat was found according to skin color. Score of unhealthy behavior higher than 6 was more frequent in lower educational strata (PR = 3.74) in the non-white population (PR = 1.39) and among those without private health insurance (PR = 1.78). Compared to women, men had higher prevalence rates of smoking, hazardous alcohol consumption, and fatty meat consumption and lower consumption of greens, vegetables and fruits.ConclusionThe results of the study emphasize the importance of monitoring social inequalities in health as part of national health policies and the urgent need to prioritize actions to promote healthy behaviors, especially among the most socially vulnerable segments of society.
Highlights
Considering the high socioeconomic inequalities prevailing in Brazil and lifestyle as a strong determinant of morbidity and premature mortality, our purpose was to evaluate the degree of socioeconomic disparities in the prevalence of health behaviors among Brazilian adult population using data from the 2013 Brazilian National Health Survey
National and international literatures record the extent of social inequalities in the main risk factors for chronic diseases: smoking, physical inactivity/sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and harmful use of alcohol [9, 13,14,15,16]
Analyzing health-related behaviors according to gender (Table 2), it can be seen that men had higher reporting of current smoking (PR = 1.70), heavy episodic drinking (PR = 3.01), low consumption (
Summary
Considering the high socioeconomic inequalities prevailing in Brazil and lifestyle as a strong determinant of morbidity and premature mortality, our purpose was to evaluate the degree of socioeconomic disparities in the prevalence of health behaviors among Brazilian adult population using data from the 2013 Brazilian National Health Survey. Social determinants shape the health profile of the population, the adoption of health-related behaviors, and the. The literature suggests that the magnitude of social inequalities varies with the type of health problem evaluated and with the socio-demographic subgroups undergoing comparison. A substantial part of the social differences in morbidity and mortality results from uneven patterns of health-related behaviors [12]. In Spain, Bartoll et al [15] observed improvements in the prevalence of healthy behaviors between 2001 and 2012, with varying degrees depending on the specific behavior, but confirmed that improvements were unequal across social groups
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