A study developed at Unicamp's Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM) analyzed current patterns of health-related behaviors, pointing out that they are defining, in the short and medium term, the future profile of the risk of incidence of diseases and deaths in Brazil. The population-based cross-sectional study – carried out using data from 49.025 Brazilians, between 20 and 59 years old – also demonstrated how social inequalities, related to these behaviors, are concomitantly determining social inequalities in the morbidity and mortality of individuals .
“It is very important to analyze these health behaviors because they account for a significant part of early deaths, as they constitute risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, neoplasms, accidents and violence”, says epidemiologist Marilisa BA Barros, who co-authored the publication with Margareth Guimarães Lima , Lhais de Paula Barbosa Medina, Celia Landman Szwarcwald and Deborah Carvalho Malta.
The research results are in the article titled "Social Inequalities in health behaviors in Brazilian adults: National Health Survey, 2013”, published last month in International Journal for Equity in Health (IJEH). The publication analyzes social inequalities in Health in Brazil, using data obtained from the National Health Survey (PNS), carried out in 2013, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in partnership with the Ministry of Health.
In the research, health-related behaviors were analyzed, including smoking, alcohol abuse, sedentary lifestyle; and the consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, milk and meat. The results revealed that 7,6% of Brazilian adults do not present, or only present, unhealthy behavior; 53,3% of this population have an unhealthy behavior score between 4 and 6; and 13% have a score above 7.
“Adults with less education, self-classified as black and brown, and who did not have a private health plan, had higher prevalences of smoking, physical inactivity and sedentary lifestyle, with lower consumption of fruits and vegetables, and higher consumption of milk. integral.”
The consumption of meat with excess fat was also significantly more frequent in segments with a lower level of education and in adults without private health insurance. And a higher prevalence of alcohol abuse was found in black or mixed-race adults.
“The highest score for unhealthy behaviors (7 or more) was 3,7 times higher in the group with the lowest level of education, 39% higher in the black population and 78% higher in the segment without private health insurance, compared, respectively , with the strata with better education, white and who have health insurance”, he explains.
Marilisa remembers that health behaviors are not just the result of personal decisions, because they are socially stimulated and disseminated. Monitoring the prevalence of unhealthy practices in the various social segments of the population – according to her – is fundamental for the evaluation and reorientation, if necessary, of interventions and strategies aimed at controlling and preventing chronic diseases in the country.
“The results of the study point to the importance of health promotion actions by health services, providing information on the benefits and practice of healthy behaviors, especially to socially disadvantaged segments, who are at a clear disadvantage in terms of health. pattern of healthier behaviors”, he concludes.
