Prevalence of very low birthweight, malformation, and low Apgar score among newborns in Brazil according to maternal urban or rural residence at birth.

AIM: Adverse birth outcomes are a major public health issue in rural areas, where several environmental risk factors, including pesticides, may endanger the health of women of reproductive age. We investigated the prevalence of selected birth outcomes among newborns from mothers living in urban and rural areas of a Brazilian municipality. METHODS: Information about all live births that occurred between 2004 and 2006 in the Municipality of Nova Friburgo, Brazil, was retrieved from the Live Birth Information System. Newborns were classified as rural or urban, according to the mother's residence address. RESULTS: Newborns from rural areas had a higher prevalence of very low-birthweight, low Apgar score, and malformation. On Poisson regression with adjustment for several confounders, rural offspring were more likely to have the aforementioned outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Women in rural areas are at higher risk of giving birth to an infant with very low-birthweight, low 5-min Apgar score and malformations detectable at birth, regardless of socioeconomic and gestational conditions.

A comprehensive integrated dataset on Brazilian health facilities: from 2005 to 2021.

OBJECTIVES: The National Registry of Healthcare Facilities is a system with the registry of every healthcare facility in Brazil with information on the capacity building and healthcare workforce regarding its public or private nature. Despite being publicly available, it can only be accessed in separated disjoint tables, with different primary units of analysis. The objective is to offer an interoperable dataset containing monthly data from 2005 to 2021 with information on healthcare facilities, including their physical and human resources, services and teams, enriched with municipal information. DATA DESCRIPTION: Database with historical data and geographic information for each health facility in Brazil. It is composed by 5 distinct tables, organized according to combinations of time, space, and types of resources, services and teams. This database opens up a range of possibilities for research topics, from case studies in a single health facility and period, analysis of a group of health facilities with characteristics of interest, to a broader study using the entire dataset and aggregated data by municipality. Furthermore, the fact that there is a row for each health facility/month/year facilitates the integration with other datasets from the Brazilian healthcare system. In addition to being a potential object of study in the health area, the dataset is also convenient in data science, especially for studies focused on time series.

Brazilian spatial, demographic, and socioeconomic data from 1996 to 2020.

OBJECTIVES: We present a database on Brazilian spatial, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics from 1996 to 2020. This database aims for integration and harmonization with epidemiological data from two major studies. It can also be a valuable database for designing and conducting various types of epidemiologic research, such as health inequality studies, ecological studies (mapping and time-trends), and multi-level analysis. DATA DESCRIPTION: The database gathers official information obtained via open sources from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, the Institute for Applied Economic Research, and the Ministry of Health. It includes 139,153 observations and 26 attributes aggregated by years and policy-relevant geographic units on geocoding of municipality centroids, total population size, child population by age-group, birth and mortality measures, Brazilian Municipal Human Development Index, Gini coefficient, Gross Domestic Product, and sanitation. We automated all data processing and curation in the free and open software R.

Prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in Brazil.

BACKGROUND: The use of medicinal plants or other alternative practices can be the only therapeutic resources for many communities and ethnic groups, especially in developing countries. In Brazil, the Ministry of Health incorporated Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) as a public health policy since 2006. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of CAM use in Brazil. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study performed as an epidemiological survey, with data from the National Health Survey, 2013 that evaluated a sample of adult Brazilians (18+ years old). The outcome was the use of CAM therapies, such as acupuncture, homeopathy, medicinal plants and herbal medicines in the last 12 months. We employed a logistic regression model (CI 95%) to evaluate the chances of CAM use. RESULTS: The prevalence of CAM use in Brazil was 4.5%. The subjects with higher chances to use CAM were: women (AOR = 1.42), aged > 40 years (AOR = 1.64), with higher educational levels (AOR = 2.35), and residents at North (AOR = 2.02) and South (AOR = 1.67) regions of Brazil, all with p-value < 0.001. According to the socioeconomic status, subjects from upper classes had higher chances to use acupuncture and homeopathy when compared to the other classes, and individuals from lower classes had higher chances to use medicinal plants and herbal medicines. Almost half of all individuals reporting CAM use did so outside the health care system. The Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) was the least used funding for CAM when compared to other types of funding. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend that the Ministry of Health invests in capacity building for health professionals who work with CAM, providing structure for those practices in health services, increasing the access of CAM therapies for SUS users, and improving the registering of information about those therapies, encouraging the use of CAM by the Brazilian population.

O papel do aleitamento materno na redução das hospitalizações por pneumonia em crianças brasileiras menores de 1 ano / Breastfeeding can prevent hospitalization for pneumonia among children under 1 year old

Objetivo: Avaliar a relação entre o aleitamento materno e as internações hospitalares por pneumonia entre crianças com menos de 1 ano de vida. Métodos: Estudo epidemiológico ecológico que utilizou dados secundários de internação por pneumonia (desfecho) e de prevalência de aleitamento materno (exposição) na população de crianças com menos de 1 ano de vida nas capitais brasileiras e no Distrito Federal em 2008. A razão de taxas (RT) de internação hospitalar foi estimada por modelo estatístico binomial negativo (intervalo de confiança de 95%), ajustado pelo índice de Gini da população e pela prevalência de fumantes na população em geral e de baixo peso ao nascer na população estudada. Resultados: A prevalência de aleitamento materno em crianças de 9 a 12 meses incompletos de vida e a prevalência do aleitamento materno exclusivo entre crianças menores de 6 meses mostraram-se associadas a uma menor taxa de internação hospitalar por pneumonia (RT = 0,62; IC95% 0,51-0,74, e RT = 0,52; IC95% 0,39-0,69, respectivamente). Conclusão: O aumento das prevalências de aleitamento materno no 1º ano de vida e de aleitamento materno exclusivo nos primeiros 6 meses de uma população podem reduzir as internações hospitalares por pneumonias.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between breastfeeding and hospitalization for pneumonia among children under 1 year old. Methods: Ecological study using secondary data of hospitalizations for pneumonia (outcome) and breastfeeding prevalence data (exposure) among children under 1 year old living in the Brazilian state capital cities and the Federal District in 2008. A negative binomial model of hospitalization was used to estimate the rate ratio (95% confidence interval), adjusted according to the Gini Index, and the prevalence rates of smokers in the general population and low birth weight individuals in the population investigated. Results: Breastfeeding prevalence among children between 9 and 12 months old and exclusive breastfeeding prevalence among children under 6 months old were associated with a lower rate ratio of hospitalization for pneumonia (RR = 0.62; 95%CI 0.51-0.74 and RR = 0.52; 95%CI 0.39-0.69, respectively). Conclusion: Increased prevalence rates of breastfeeding during the first year of life and exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life can reduce the number of hospitalizations for pneumonia.