An Intersectoral Approach to Hypertension Care: Solutions for Improving Blood Pressure Control in São Paulo, Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and a major public health issue worldwide. In Brazil, it affects approximately 52.5% of the adult population. We describe the solutions package and the impact of a population health initiative in São Paulo city, following the CARDIO4Cities approach for the management of cardiovascular risk. METHODS: Using a design thinking approach, interventions were developed with a coalition of local and international stakeholders to address needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and the health system. The resulting solution package was checked to comply with guidelines for non-communicable disease and hypertension management. Clinical impact was measured by extracting the hypertension cascade of care-monitored, diagnosis, treatment, and control-from medical records. RESULTS: Under the leadership of the municipal health authorities, nine solutions were piloted and scaled across the city. Solutions conform with local and international best-practices. Between October 2017 and December 2021, 11,406 patient records were analyzed. Results showed a 40% increase in monitored patients (patients with at least one blood pressure, BP, measurement); reduced proportions of patients diagnosed among those with available BP measurements (72%-53%) and treated among diagnosed (93%-85%); and an improvement in controlled patients among those receiving treatment (16%-27%). CONCLUSIONS: The solution package described in this study was correlated with increased BP control. The implementation methodology and results add to the body of real-world evidence supporting population health implementation science in Brazil and beyond.

Provisão de recursos de saúde nas regiões intermediárias do Brasil, 2018 / Provision of health resources in the intermediate regions of Brazil, 2018

Resumo Introdução: A pandemia de COVID-19 exigiu a ampliação da capacidade dos serviços de saúde nos estados e municípios do Brasil. Este estudo analisou a distribuição geográfica da provisão de recursos de saúde no país no período que antecede essa crise sanitária. Objetivo: Descrever a provisão de recursos de saúde segundo o índice de desenvolvimento humano (IDH) das 133 regiões geográficas intermediárias do Brasil, em 2018. Método: Dados sobre cobertura populacional da Estratégia Saúde da Família, número de consultas ambulatoriais e hospitalizações, investimento público em saúde, leitos hospitalares, leitos mantidos pelo SUS, leitos de UTI e leitos de UTI mantidos pelo SUS foram obtidos junto ao Ministério da Saúde e IBGE. A associação das variáveis com o IDH das regiões intermediárias foi avaliada pela correlação de Pearson. Resultados: A provisão de recursos de saúde foi mais elevada nas regiões intermediárias do Sul e Sudeste, enquanto as regiões do Centro-Oeste tiveram valores intermediários. O IDH correlacionou positivamente com os recursos em saúde. O inverso ocorreu para a cobertura da Estratégia Saúde da Família, que foi maior nas regiões Norte e Nordeste. Conclusões: Monitorar geograficamente a provisão de recursos de saúde pode instruir estratégias para reduzir desigualdades no país. Em 2018, as regiões intermediárias estavam desigualmente preparadas para atender às necessidades em saúde de suas populações e refletiam a lei do cuidado inverso. Foi este o cenário de partida para a resposta à pandemia por COVID-19 em 2020.

Abstract Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic required expanding the health services capacity in Brazilian states and municipalities. This study analyzed the geographic distribution of the health resources provision in the country in the period before the pandemic. Objective: This study aimed to describe the availability of health resources in the 133 intermediate geographic regions of Brazil in 2018 according to the human development index (HDI). Method: Data on population coverage of the family health strategy, number of outpatient consults and hospitalizations, public investment in health, total number of hospital beds, beds maintained by SUS, intensive care unit (ICU) beds, and ICU beds maintained by SUS were obtained from the Ministry of Health and IBGE. the association of variables with the HDI of the intermediate regions was assessed using Pearson's correlation. Results: The indices of health resources had higher average values for the South and Southeast regions, whereas the Central West ranked intermediate values. The HDI correlated positively with health resources. The coverage by family health strategy had an inverse distribution and was higher in the North and Northeast regions. Conclusions: Monitoring the health system at the intermediate region level can be a useful strategy to promote access and reduce health inequalities in Brazil. In 2018, the intermediate regions were unevenly prepared to meet their populations' health needs and reflected the inverse care law. This scenario was the starting point for the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Tendência e magnitude da mortalidade por câncer no Brasil e sua relação com condições socioeconômicas e provisão de serviços de saúde / Trend and magnitude of cancer mortality in Brazil and its relationship with socioeconomic conditions and health care provision

Introdução: A Organização Mundial de Saúde estima 10 milhões de óbitos devidos a neoplasias em 2019, totalizando 17% de todas as causas de morte do planeta. Desigualdades na mortalidade por câncer podem estar relacionadas aos determinantes socioeconômicos da incidência da doença, assim como à efetividade e resiliência de serviços de saúde. Objetivos: Estimar a tendência e a magnitude da mortalidade por câncer no Brasil, explorar a relação desses desfechos com indicadores socioeconômicos e de provisão de serviços de saúde e, por fim, discutir a resiliência e funcionalidade do sistema de saúde brasileiro frente à pandemia de COVID-19. Métodos: Dados sobre o Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano Municipal são disponibilizados pelo Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento. Informações a respeito de provisões de saúde e registro de óbitos foram extraídas das bases de acesso público do Ministério da Saúde. Demais dados demográficos foram informados pelos recenseamentos gerais, com estimativas para os anos intercensitários fornecidas pela Fundação Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. A mortalidade foi calculada com ajuste por sexo e idade pelo método direto e tomando o padrão de população proposto pela Organização Mundial de Saúde. Para as análises de tendência foi utilizada a regressão de Prais-Winsten. Para demais dados descritivos foi utilizada a variação percentual relativa. Resultados: Tendências de cânceres aumentaram no Norte e Nordeste e mantiveram-se majoritariamente decrescentes ou estacionárias no Sul, Sudeste e Centro-Oeste. A variação de tendências entre regiões intermediárias foi mais pronunciada no Norte e Nordeste. Regiões intermediárias com alto índices de desenvolvimento humano, gastos de saúde e leitos hospitalares obtiveram tendências crescentes menores do que as regiões com valores baixos desses indicadores para a maior parte dos grupos de câncer estudados. Em 2018, as macrorregiões mais ricas do país, Sul e Sudeste, aplicaram mais verbas em saúde na média por habitante e puderam dispor mais leitos e realizar mais internações hospitalares e atendimentos ambulatoriais per capita. Quando essas variáveis foram medidas nas regiões intermediárias, também foi verificado o mesmo padrão de melhores resultados para as áreas com IDH mais elevado. O governo brasileiro não levou em consideração que estados mais vulneráveis estavam mais suscetíveis aos impactos da pandemia de COVID-19. A falta de planejamento acarretou a redução de 25% dos procedimentos SUS. Conclusões: Tendências crescentes de mortalidade em regiões de baixa-renda podem refletir sobrecarga de seus sistemas de saúde locais já fragilizados. Aumentar o volume de provisões de serviços de saúde e reduzir disparidades socioeconômicas pode prevenir um aumento nas tendências de mortalidade por câncer em regiões marginalizadas do país. Macrorregiões e a maioria das regiões intermediárias do país são desigualmente preparadas para atender às necessidades gerais de saúde de suas populações, o que foi exposto e agravado pela pandemia de COVID-19. A falta de planejamento governamental para aumentar a resiliência do SUS resultou no aumento das disparidades do sistema de saúde no território brasileiro.

Introduction: The World Health Organization estimates 10 million deaths due to neoplasms in 2019, which accounts for a total of 17% of all causes of death on the planet. Inequalities in cancer mortality may be related to socioeconomic determinants of cancer incidence, as well as to the effectiveness and resilience of health services. Objectives: To estimate the trend and magnitude of cancer mortality in Brazil, to explore the relationship of these outcomes with socioeconomic indicators and health care provisions and services and, finally, to discuss the resilience and functionality of the Brazilian health system in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Data on the Municipal Human Development Index are made available by the United Nations Development Program. Information about health care provisions and death records were extracted from the public access databases of the Ministry of Health. Other demographic data were reported by the general censuses, with estimates for the intercensal years provided by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Mortality was calculated by standardizing by gender and age using the population demographic profile proposed by the World Health Organization. Prais-Winsten regression was used for trend analyses. For other descriptive data, the relative percentage variation was used. Results: Cancer trends increased in the North and Northeast and remained mostly decreasing or stationary in the South, Southeast and Midwest. The variation of trends between intermediate regions was more pronounced in the North and Northeast. Intermediate regions with high rates of human development, health expenditures and hospital beds had lower increasing trends than the regions with low values of these indicators for most cancer groups studied. In 2018, the richest macroregions of the country, South and Southeast, applied more health funds on average per inhabitant and were able to increase the number of hospital beds and perform more hospital admissions and outpatient care procedures per capita. When these variables were measured in the intermediate regions, the same pattern of better outcomes was also verified for areas with higher HDI. The Brazilian government did not take into account that more vulnerable states were more susceptible to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lack of planning led to a 25% reduction in SUS procedures. Conclusions: Increasing mortality trends in low-income regions may overload their already fragile local health system. Increasing the volume of health service provisions and reducing socioeconomic disparities may be able to prevent an increase in cancer mortality trends in marginalized regions of the country. Macroregions and most of the intermediate regions of the country are unequally prepared to meet the general health needs of their populations, which was exposed and aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The lack of government planning to increase the resilience of SUS resulted in increased disparities in the Brazilian health system.

Impact of redistributing deaths by ill-defined causes in oral and oropharyngeal cancer mortality in Brazil.

Less-than-optimal reliability of mortality information systems regarding the underlying cause of death can mask the reality of oral (OC) and oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) mortality. This study aimed to assess the impact on the magnitude and temporal trends of OC and OPC mortality in Brazil of two statistical approaches to redistribute deaths with ill-defined underlying causes. We analyzed deaths with ill-defined causes in Brazil by macro-region, between 1996-2018. The Mortality Information System provided official information on deaths. Two correction methods were applied: the EF method, which proportionally reallocates deaths classified as R00-R99 in the ICD-10 to the remaining specific causes of death according to the proportion of deaths with certified causes; and the GBD method, which considers the concept of garbage codes, redistributing deaths from several ICD-10 chapters according to previously established coefficients. For the trend analysis of mortality (certified and redistributed), the Prais-Winsten method was carried out. The OC and OPC death rates had an evident increase after the redistribution by the two techniques in all regions of the country; the increase was higher using the GBD method. In the Northeast and North regions, this method more than doubled the certified death rates. The redistribution methods also changed time series trends. In epidemiological studies of mortality from OC and OPC, it is necessary to redistribute deaths from ill-defined causes when analyzing data from less-than-optimal information systems. The choice of the correction method is critical; epidemiological studies must manage it as a methodological decision that has significant impacts on results.

Brazil's health system functionality amidst of the COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis of resilience.

Background: As of December 31, 2020, Brazil had the second-highest burden of COVID-19 worldwide. Given the absence of federal government coordination, it was up to the local governments to maintain healthcare provision for non-COVID health issues. In this descriptive study, we aimed to discuss the SUS functionality and resilience, describing the impact of the pandemic on non-COVID health services delivery while considering the regional inequalities of the allocation of financing health system, health infrastructure and health workforce. Methods: We used input-output framework based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Health System Building Blocks to estimate health system functionality and resilience. An ecological assessment was designed to calculated mean relative changes to compare the first year of the pandemic in Brazil with the previous one. All data used in this study were anonymized and made available by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Input indicators were categorized in health system financing (federal funding received as well as expenditure of both state and city governments), health system's infrastructure (hospital beds) and health workforce (healthcare workers positions). Output indicators were categorized into nine different groups of service delivery procedures. To explore the relationship between the variation in procedures with socioeconomic conditions, we used the Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (SVI). Findings: State governments had a 38·6% increase in federal transfers, while municipal governments had a 33·9% increase. The increase of ICU beds reached its peak in the third quarter of 2020, averaging 72·1% by the end of the year. The country also saw an increase in jobs for registered nurses (13·6%), nurse assistants (8·5%), physiotherapists (7·9%), and medical doctors (4·9%). All procedures underwent expressive reduction: Screenings (-42·6%); Diagnostic procedures (-28·9%); Physician appointments (-42·5%); Low and medium complexity surgeries (-59·7%); High complexity surgeries (-27·9%); Transplants (-44·7%); Treatments and clinical procedures due to injuries of external causes (-19·1%); Irrepressible procedures (-8·5%); and Childbirths (-12·6%). The most significant drop in procedures happened in the first quarter of the pandemic, followed by progressive increase; most regions had not yet recovered by the end of 2020. State-level changes in numbers of procedures point towards a negative trend with SVI. Interpretation: The Brazilian Government did not consider that socioeconomically vulnerable states were at a higher risk of being impacted by the overburden of the health system caused by the COVID-19, which resulted in poorer health system functionality for those vulnerable states. The lack of proper planning to improve health system resilience resulted in the decrease of a quarter of the amount of healthcare procedures increasing the already existing health disparities in the country. Funding: MCTIC/CNPQ/FNDCT/MS/SCTIE/DECIT No 07/2020.

Impact of redistributing deaths by ill-defined causes in oral and oropharyngeal cancer mortality in Brazil

Abstract Less-than-optimal reliability of mortality information systems regarding the underlying cause of death can mask the reality of oral (OC) and oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) mortality. This study aimed to assess the impact on the magnitude and temporal trends of OC and OPC mortality in Brazil of two statistical approaches to redistribute deaths with ill-defined underlying causes. We analyzed deaths with ill-defined causes in Brazil by macro-region, between 1996-2018. The Mortality Information System provided official information on deaths. Two correction methods were applied: the EF method, which proportionally reallocates deaths classified as R00-R99 in the ICD-10 to the remaining specific causes of death according to the proportion of deaths with certified causes; and the GBD method, which considers the concept of garbage codes, redistributing deaths from several ICD-10 chapters according to previously established coefficients. For the trend analysis of mortality (certified and redistributed), the Prais-Winsten method was carried out. The OC and OPC death rates had an evident increase after the redistribution by the two techniques in all regions of the country; the increase was higher using the GBD method. In the Northeast and North regions, this method more than doubled the certified death rates. The redistribution methods also changed time series trends. In epidemiological studies of mortality from OC and OPC, it is necessary to redistribute deaths from ill-defined causes when analyzing data from less-than-optimal information systems. The choice of the correction method is critical; epidemiological studies must manage it as a methodological decision that has significant impacts on results.

Redistributing deaths by ill-defined and unspecified causes on cancer mortality in Brazil.

OBJECTIVE: to discuss the impact four different redistribution strategies have on the quantitative and temporal trends of cancer mortality assessment in Brazil. METHODOLOGY: This study used anonymized and georeferenced data provided by the Brazilian Ministry of Health (BMoH). Four different approaches were used to conduct the redistribution of ill-defined deaths and garbage codes. Age-standardized mortality rates used the world population as reference. Prais-Winsten autoregression allowed the calculation of region, sex, and cancer type trends. RESULTS: Death rates increased considerably in all regions after redistribution. Overall, Elisabeth B. França's and the World Health Organization methods had a milder impact on trends and rate magnitudes when compared to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 method. This study also observed that, when the BMoH dealt with the problem of redistributing ill-defined deaths, results were similar to those obtained by the GBD method. The redistribution methods also influenced the assessment of trends; however, differences were less pronounced. CONCLUSIONS: Since developing a comparative gold standard is impossible, matching global techniques to local realities may be an alternative for methodological selection. In our study, the compatibility of the findings suggests how valid the GBD method is to the Brazilian context. However, caution is needed. Future studies should assess the impact of these methods as applied to the redistribution of deaths to type-specific neoplasms.

The impact of inequalities and health expenditure on mortality due to oral and oropharyngeal cancer in Brazil.

This study aims to assess the magnitude and trend of mortality rates due to oral (OC) and oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) in the 133 Intermediate Geographic Regions (IGR) of Brazil between 1996 and 2018 and to analyze its association with sociodemographic variables and provision of health services. It also aims to compare the trend of mortality from neoplasms that have been reported as associated with HPV (OPC) with the trend of neoplasms that have been reported as not associated with HPV (OC). We obtained mortality data from the Mortality Information System in Brazil and analyzed the trends using the Prais-Winsten method. Then, we assessed the relationship between mortality trends and socioeconomic, health spending, and health services provision variables. The median of the annual percent change of the country's mortality rates was 0.63% for OC and 0.83% for OPC. Trends in mortality in the IGRs correlated significantly with the Human Development Index and government expenditure on ambulatory health care and hospitalizations. Mortality from both types of cancer decreased in those IGR in which the government spent more on health and in the more socioeconomically developed ones. This study found no epidemiological indication that HPV plays the leading etiological factor in OPC in Brazil.

Redistributing deaths by ill-defined and unspecified causes on cancer mortality in Brazil

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE to discuss the impact four different redistribution strategies have on the quantitative and temporal trends of cancer mortality assessment in Brazil. METHODOLOGY This study used anonymized and georeferenced data provided by the Brazilian Ministry of Health (BMoH). Four different approaches were used to conduct the redistribution of ill-defined deaths and garbage codes. Age-standardized mortality rates used the world population as reference. Prais-Winsten autoregression allowed the calculation of region, sex, and cancer type trends. RESULTS Death rates increased considerably in all regions after redistribution. Overall, Elisabeth B. França's and the World Health Organization methods had a milder impact on trends and rate magnitudes when compared to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 method. This study also observed that, when the BMoH dealt with the problem of redistributing ill-defined deaths, results were similar to those obtained by the GBD method. The redistribution methods also influenced the assessment of trends; however, differences were less pronounced. CONCLUSIONS Since developing a comparative gold standard is impossible, matching global techniques to local realities may be an alternative for methodological selection. In our study, the compatibility of the findings suggests how valid the GBD method is to the Brazilian context. However, caution is needed. Future studies should assess the impact of these methods as applied to the redistribution of deaths to type-specific neoplasms.

Describing mortality trends for major cancer sites in 133 intermediate regions of Brazil and an ecological study of its causes.

BACKGROUND: In Brazil, 211 thousand (16.14%) of all death certificates in 2016 identified cancer as the underlying cause of death, and it is expected that around 320 thousand will receive a cancer diagnosis in 2019. We aimed to describe trends of cancer mortality from 1996 to 2016, in 133 intermediate regions of Brazil, and to discuss macro-regional differences of trends by human development and healthcare provision. METHODS: This ecological study assessed georeferenced official data on population and mortality, health spending, and healthcare provision from Brazilian governmental agencies. The regional office of the United Nations Development Program provided data on the Human Development Index in Brazil. Deaths by misclassified or unspecified causes (garbage codes) were redistributed proportionally to known causes. Age-standardized mortality rates used the world population as reference. Prais-Winsten autoregression allowed calculating trends for each region, sex and cancer type. RESULTS: Trends were predominantly on the increase in the North and Northeast, whereas they were mainly decreasing or stationary in the South, Southeast, and Center-West. Also, the variation of trends within intermediate regions was more pronounced in the North and Northeast. Intermediate regions with higher human development, government health spending, and hospital beds had more favorable trends for all cancers and many specific cancer types. CONCLUSIONS: Patterns of cancer trends in the country reflect differences in human development and the provision of health resources across the regions. Increasing trends of cancer mortality in low-income Brazilian regions can overburden their already fragile health infrastructure. Improving the healthcare provision and reducing socioeconomic disparities can prevent increasing trends of mortality by all cancers and specific cancer types in Brazilian more impoverished regions.

Evaluation practices in the field of Food and Nutrition / Práticas avaliativas no campo da Alimentação e Nutrição

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to characterize and analyze the different existing methods for the evaluation of food and nutrition programs and services in Brazil, through a systematic review of the literature focused on complete articles published in national indexed journals. We searched the PubMed, MedLine and LILACS databases using the following search terms and Boolean operators: "evaluation and program"; "project"; "intervention"; "servisse"; "actions and nutrition"; "nutritional". The research was restricted to articles written in Portuguese, English and Spanish and published between 2001 and 2015. Twenty-two studies were selected and the analysis indicates; most were carried out through quantitative approaches and external evaluations based on epidemiological theory; participatory evaluation strategies are still uncommon; Impact assessments and implementation were predominant; there is little diversity in terms of references to the theoretical framework in the field of evaluation of health care programs in the planning and execution of the evaluation processes analyzed. The results of this study indicate the need for a more comprehensive evaluation considering the complexity of the interventions evaluated using the theoretical-methodological apparatus available in the literature to understand the importance of the different perspectives of the agents involved in the evaluation processes.

RESUMO O objetivo deste estudo foi caracterizar e analisar os diferentes métodos existentes para a avaliação de programas e serviços de alimentação e nutrição no Brasil, por meio de revisão sistemática da literatura focada em artigos completos publicados em revistas indexadas nacionais. Foi realizada uma pesquisa nas bases de dados PubMed, MedLine e LILACS utilizando os seguintes termos de busca e operadores booleanos: "avaliação e programa"; "projeto"; "intervenção"; "serviço"; "ações e nutrição"; "nutricional". A pesquisa foi restrita a artigos escritos em português, inglês e espanhol e publicados entre 2001 e 2015. Vinte e dois estudos foram selecionados e a análise indica; a maioria foi realizada por meio de abordagens quantitativas e avaliações externas baseadas na teoria epidemiológica; as estratégias de avaliação participativa ainda são incomuns; as avaliações de impacto e implementação foram predominantes; há pouca diversidade em termos de referências ao arcabouço teórico no campo da avaliação de programas de atenção à saúde no planejamento e execução dos processos de avaliação analisados. Os resultados deste estudo indicam a necessidade de uma avaliação mais abrangente, considerando a complexidade das intervenções avaliadas utilizando o aparato teórico-metodológico disponível na literatura para compreender a importância das diferentes perspectivas dos agentes envolvidos nos processos de avaliação.