PREVALENCE OF HEART FAILURE AND ASSOCIATION WITH SELF-REFERENCED HEALTH IN BRAZIL: NATIONAL HEALTH SURVEY, 2013
Heart failure. Self-rated health. Epidemiological surveys. Prevalence.
Background: Heart failure (HF) is one of the most important clinical challenges in the world health area, with an epidemic profile in progression. In this sense, self-referenced health (SRH), widely used in health surveys, is presented as a tool to monitor the health status of chronic non-communicable diseases and, therefore, better plan the assistance and effectiveness of health policies.
Objective: To estimate the prevalence of HF and its association with SRH in Brazil. Methods: A cross-sectional study using data from the National Health Survey (NHS) conducted in 2013, with data valid for 59,655 adults (≥ 18 years). The prevalence of heart failure assessed by the question "Have any doctors ever diagnosed heart failure?" Was related to sociodemographic characteristics, health status perception (SRH, perceptions of physical and mental health), diagnosis of depression and practice of physical exercise. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyzes were performed. The final model of the main association was tested by Poisson regression with robust variance. Results: The diagnosis of heart failure was reported by 1.1% of the interviewees. Based on the multivariate analysis, it was observed that having a diagnosis of HF increases the chance of reporting precarious self-reported health, provided the adjustment is made by age group and physical health perception (OR = 1.78, 95% CI 1.52 - 2,08). Conclusion: The association between precarious HF and SRH reveals how this disease influences the quality of life of Brazilians with such disease. In addition, the information from the NHS, being representative of the Brazilian population, is useful to subsidize the formulation of public policies in the areas of promotion, surveillance and health care of the Unified Health System in individuals with HF.