Noncommunicable diseases and changes in lifestyles during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

Objective: To compare lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 pandemic according to the presence or absence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Brazilian adults.

Methods: Cross-sectional study, using data from the ConVid survey, between April and May 2020. The following variables were evaluated: lifestyle and presence of one or more NCDs (diabetes, hypertension, respiratory disease, heart disease, and cancer).

Prevalence of arterial hypertension in Brazilian adults and its associated factors and activity limitations: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Hypertension is a serious global public health problem that affects a large part of the Brazilian adult population and can cause limitations and losses of quality of life.

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the association of hypertension and its correlated limitations, with sociodemographic and epidemiological factors.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional study analyzing information on 44,271 adults (30 years or older) from the Brazilian National Health Survey of 2013.

Inequalities in healthy life expectancy by Federated States.

Objectives: To estimate the healthy life expectancy at 60 years by sex and Federated States and to investigate geographical inequalities by socioeconomic status.

Methods: Healthy life expectancy was estimated by the Sullivan method, based on the information of the National Survey on Health, 2013. Three criteria were adopted for the definition of "unhealthy state": self-assessment of bad health, functionality for performing the activities of daily living, and the presence of noncommunicable disease with intense degree of limitation.

Clinical-Functional Vulnerability Index-20 (IVCF-20): rapid recognition of frail older adults.

Objective: To evaluate the adequacy of the Clinical-Functional Vulnerability Index-20, a rapid triage instrument to test vulnerability in Brazilian older adults, for the use in primary health care.

Methods: The study included convenience sample of 397 patients aged older than or equal to 60 years attended at Centro de Referência para o Idoso (Reference Center for Older Adults) and of 52 older adults the same age attended at the community. The results of the questionnaire, consisting of 20 questions, were compared with those of the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, considered a reference for identifying frail older adults.

Inequalities in healthy life expectancy by Brazilian geographic regions: findings from the National Health Survey, 2013.

Background: The demographic shift and epidemiologic transition in Brazil have drawn attention to ways of measuring population health that complement studies of mortality. In this paper, we investigate regional differences in healthy life expectancy based on information from the National Health Survey (PNS), 2013.

Methods: In the survey, a three-stage cluster sampling (census tracts, households and individuals) with stratification of the primary sampling units and random selection in all stages was used to select 60,202 Brazilian adults (18 years and over).

Hospitalization of older adults due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions.

Objective: To analyze the temporal evolution of the hospitalization of older adults due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions according to their structure, magnitude and causes.

Methods: Cross-sectional study based on data from the Hospital Information System of the Brazilian Unified Health System and from the Primary Care Information System, referring to people aged 60 to 74 years living in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Souhteastern Brazil. The proportion and rate of hospitalizations due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions were calculated, both the global rate and, according to diagnoses, the most prevalent ones.

Clinical and epidemiological analysis of hospitalizations of elderly due to poisoning and adverse effects of medications, Brazil from 2004 to 2008.

The elderly are more susceptible to adverse drugs effects due to a variety of factors, such as excessive and concomitant use of several drugs, administration errors, physiological changes in the body that alter the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. In order to determine the main therapeutic classes involved in hospital admissions of elderly people due to intoxication and adverse drug effects, as well as major health problems related to these events, 9,793 hospitalizations of people aged 60 or over registered in the Hospital Information System of the Unified Health System (SIH-SUS) in the period of 2004 to 2008 were analyzed. Unspecified drugs, systemic antibiotics, psychotropics, psychoactives, antiepileptics, sedatives, hypnotics and antiparkinsonians accounted for 57% of the total of admissions analyzed.