Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia.
Centro de Integração de Dados e Conhecimentos para Saúde (CIDACS), Salvador, BA, Brazil.
Braz J Psychiatry. 2020 Nov-Dec;42(6):591-598. doi: 10.1590/1516-4446-2019-0721.
To assess a large set of metadata made public by the Brazilian Ministry of Health on older subjects who visited outpatient mental health services in Brazil from 2008 to 2012.
We extracted data from the Brazilian Unified Health System Information Technology Department (Departamento de Informática do Sistema Único de Saúde, DATASUS), then calculated rates of visits per population in each of the five regions of Brazil, using census data for each year. Finally, logistic regressions were performed with depressive disorders or dementias as dependent variables, controlled by age and year of visit, stratified by region.
Mood disorders were the leading reason for visits to outpatient mental health services by older adults, followed by delusional disorders. The calculated rates were lower than the known prevalence of depressive disorders and dementias, but the regressions revealed typical patterns. Males were less likely to present with a depressive disorder, while older subjects were more likely to present with depression and dementia.
Publicly available data from DATASUS may not enable inferences about the prevalence of mental disorders in elders, but inferential analyses match what is known about these conditions. This approach is supplemental to other more common ones and is of special importance for policymakers and health system managers.
评估巴西卫生部公开的 2008 至 2012 年期间，巴西门诊精神卫生服务老年就诊者的大量元数据。
我们从巴西统一卫生系统信息技术司（Departamento de Informática do Sistema Único de Saúde，DATASUS）提取数据，然后根据每年的人口普查数据，计算每个巴西地区的就诊人数占人口的比例。最后，使用逻辑回归，以抑郁障碍或痴呆为因变量，控制年龄和就诊年份，并按地区分层。
心境障碍是老年人门诊精神卫生服务就诊的主要原因，其次是妄想障碍。计算的比率低于已知的抑郁障碍和痴呆患病率，但回归分析显示出典型模式。男性出现抑郁障碍的可能性较小，而老年患者更可能出现抑郁和痴呆。
DATASUS 提供的公开数据可能无法对老年人精神障碍的患病率进行推断，但推理分析与已知的这些情况相符。这种方法是对其他更常见方法的补充，对政策制定者和卫生系统管理者具有特殊重要性。
