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Social and demographic profile of Unified Health System users in a medium-sized city of southern Brazil
de Oliveira, Simone Gomes Dias; Carvalho, Pedro Henrique Azambuja & Lund, Rafael Guerra
Abstract
Aim: The use of health services is a complex behavior and results from a series of determinants
that includes the users’ social and demographic characteristics. The current survey interprets the
social and demographic profile of Unified Health System (UHS; SUS in Portuguese) users from
Pelotas RS Brazil, which was conducted by interviews with 333 users from five Health Basic Units
(HBUs).
Methods: The social and demographic characterization was deployed by the variables
sex, age, occupation, city/town or district of origin, number of family members, use of continuous
medication, diseases and family income.
Results: HBU users were mostly women (82.4%),
within the 30-40-year-old age range (21.4%), housewives (36.3%) from Pelotas (96.2%) and
from the district of Fragata (26.1%). Families of users comprise mostly two to four members
(66.6%), with an income of one to two minimum wages (66.2%). Fifty-one percent of the
interviewees do not use continuous medication, while hypertension was the most cited disease
(51.8%).
Conclusions: An understanding of HBU users’ characteristics and their associated
social and demographic context may contribute towards a better reception and may confirm the
UHS contribution towards universality and equality of public health care.
Keywords
Unified Health System, health profile, social conditions, Brazil
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