Regular source of primary care and health services utilisation among Brazilian elderly with mental-physical multimorbidity

• Published in: BMC geriatrics Vol. 24; no. 1; p. 430
• Main Authors: Batista, Sandro Rogério Rodrigues, Sousa, Ana Luiza Lima, Nunes, Bruno Pereira, Rodrigues, Rodolfo Rêgo Deusdará, Jardim, Paulo Cesar Brandão Veiga
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 15.05.2024; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Brazil - epidemiology; Chronic disease; Chronic diseases; Chronic illnesses; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Comorbidity; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diabetes; Elderly; Emergency medical care; Female; Geriatrics; Health aspects; Health care industry; Health care policy; Health services; Higher education; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Male; Maternal & child health; Medical care; Medical personnel; Mental depression; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Mental Disorders - therapy; Mental health; Middle Aged; Morbidity; Multimorbidity; Multimorbidity - trends; Obesity; Older people; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - statistics & numerical data; Patient satisfaction; Political activity; Political aspects; Population; Primary care; Primary Health Care - statistics & numerical data; Professional ethics; Professionals; Quality of life; Regular source of care; Self report; Socioeconomic factors; Utilization; Variables; Brazil; Chronic disease; Elderly; Primary care; Mental health; Regular source of care; Multimorbidity
• ISSN: 1471-2318; 1471-2318
• DOI: 10.1186/s12877-024-05048-4

In ageing populations, multimorbidity is a complex challenge to health systems, especially when the individuals have both mental and physical morbidities. Although a regular source of primary care (RSPC) is associated with better health outcomes, its relation with health service utilisation in elderly patients with mental-physical multimorbidity (MP-MM) is scarce. This study explored the relations among health service utilisation, presence of RSPC and MP-MM among elderly Brazilians. A national cross-sectional study performed with data from national representative samples from the Brazilian National Health Research (PNS, in Portuguese; Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde) carried out in 2013 with 11,177 elderly Brazilian people. MP-MM was defined as the presence of two or more morbidities, including at least one mental morbidity, and was evaluated using a list of 16 physical and mental morbidities. The RSPC was analysed by the presence of regular font of care in primary care and health service utilisation according to the demand for health services ≤ 15 days, medical consultation ≤ 12 months, and hospitalisation ≤ 1 year. Frequency description of variables and bivariate association were performed using Stata v.15.2 software. The majority of individuals was female (56.4%), and their mean age was 69.8 years. The observed prevalence of MP-MM was 12.2%. Individuals with MP-MM had higher utilisation of health services when compared to those without MP-MM. RSPC was present at 36.5% and was higher in women (37.8% vs. 34.9%). There was a lower occurrence of hospitalisation ≤ 1 year among MP-MM individuals with RSPC and without a private plan of health. Our findings demonstrate that RSPC can be an important component of care in elderly individuals with MP-MM because it was associated with lower occurrence of hospitalisation, mainly in those that have not a private plan of health. Longitudinal studies are necessary to confirm these findings.