The Challenge of Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes to Public Health: A Study Based on Qualitative Systemic Approach

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 7; p. e0132216
• Main Authors: Carvalho, Marilia Sá, Coeli, Claudia Medina, Chor, Dóra, Pinheiro, Rejane Sobrino, Fonseca, Maria de Jesus Mendes da, Sá Carvalho, Luiz Carlos de
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 14.07.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adaptive systems; Adult; Alcohol use; Blood pressure; Cardiovascular diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases - epidemiology; Complex adaptive systems; Complexity; Computational Biology - methods; Computer simulation; Correlation analysis; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes Mellitus - epidemiology; Epidemiology; Health problems; Heart diseases; Humans; Hypertension; Hypertension - epidemiology; Hypertension - prevention & control; Longitudinal Studies; Mathematical models; Multilevel; Outdoor air quality; Population (statistical); Public health; Public Health - methods; Regression analysis; Regression models; Research methodology; Socioeconomic factors; Statistical analysis; Statistical models; Structural stability; Studies; Systematic review
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0132216

The most common modeling approaches to understanding incidence, prevalence and control of chronic diseases in populations, such as statistical regression models, are limited when it comes to dealing with the complexity of those problems. Those complex adaptive systems have characteristics such as emerging properties, self-organization and feedbacks, which structure the system stability and resistance to changes. Recently, system science approaches have been proposed to deal with the range, complexity, and multifactor nature of those public health problems. In this paper we applied a multilevel systemic approach to create an integrated, coherent, and increasingly precise conceptual framework, capable of aggregating different partial or specialized studies, based on the challenges of the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health - ELSA-Brasil. The failure to control blood pressure found in several of the study's subjects was discussed, based on the proposed model, analyzing different loops, time lags, and feedback that influence this outcome in a population with high educational level, with reasonably good health services access. We were able to identify the internal circularities and cycles that generate the system's resistance to change. We believe that this study can contribute to propose some new possibilities of the research agenda and to the discussion of integrated actions in the field of public health.