pesquisas

ARTIGO ARTICLE

Condições de saúde, capacidade funcional, uso de serviços de saúde e gastos com medicamentos da população idosa brasileira: um estudo descritivo baseado na Pesquisa
Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios

Maria Fernanda Lima-Costa 1
Sandhi Maria Barreto 1
Luana Giatti 1

1 Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Pública e
Envelhecimento, Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou,
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz/
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Av. Augusto de Lima 1715,
Barro Preto, Belo Horizonte,
MG 30190-002, Brasil.

Health status, physical functioning, health services utilization, and expenditures on medicines among
Brazilian elderly: a descriptive study using data from the National Household Survey

Abstract The objective of this research was to describe health conditions and health services utilization among Brazilian seniors. The study was based on 28,943 adults > 60 years (99.9%) from an overall National Household Survey (PNAD 1998). The results show that prevalence rates for at least one chronic disease (69.0%), hypertension (43.9%), arthritis (37.5%), and inability to feed oneself/bathe/use the toilet (2.0%) are very similar to those observed in other populations.
Physician visits and hospitalization patterns are within the variation reported by different countries. The low prevalence rates of older adults who had interrupted activities because of a health problem (13.9%) or had been bedridden (9.5%) in the previous 2 weeks or hospitalized in the previous year (13.6%) show that the vast majority are not subject to these events. Considering that 50% of this population live on less than or equal to one Brazilian monthly minimum wage, expenditures on medications consume approximately one-fourth (23%) of total income for half of the elderly population.
Key words Aging Health; Survey; Health Services for the Aged
Resumo O objetivo deste trabalho é descrever as condições de saúde e o uso de serviços de saúde da população idosa