Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 155, February 2022, 106914
Preventive Medicine

Repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on preventive health services in Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106914Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Delivery of preventative health services in Brazil can be evaluated using the Sistema Unico de Saude (SUS) database.

  • From March–December 2020 primary health care and home visits in Brazil declined 30% compared to prior years.

  • Dental consultations in Brazil declined by 73%, immunization coverage by 18%, and elective admissions by 40% in 2020.

  • Ambulatory diagnosis of respiratory infections in 2020 increased 4.2-fold in Brazil as compared to prior years.

  • The COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic decline in preventative and treatment services to the Brazilian population.

Abstract

Introduction

The increasing burden of non-communicable diseases and limited public financing are major challenges facing health care systems in Latin America. Although COVID-19 severely impacted the Brazilian health care system, it is crucial to further characterize the degree of disruption caused to public health efforts, in order to address and manage long term effects of this pandemic. We therefore quantified the demand for preventive and treatment services from the Brazilian Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde/SUS) in 2020 to evaluate potential repercussions of COVID-19 in this setting.

Methods

Using the SUS database, we compared preventative and treatment services rendered in 2020 to the same services rendered from 2017 to 19. We also evaluated the frequency of respiratory infection (RI) diagnoses during the pandemic, relative to the preceding years.

Results

Compared to 2017–19, in 2020 non-urgent medical appointments decreased 1.4-fold (p = 0.0017), dental consultations 2.8-fold (p = 0.05), and immunization coverage 1.5 fold (p = 0.0005). The number of RI visits to SUS ambulatory care units in 2020 was 4.2 times higher than in preceding years (p = 0.0014), with a peak of 280,898 diagnoses in July 2020.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have led to a dramatic decline in preventative and treatment services provided by SUS to the Brazilian population. Our findings may aid decision-makers in formulating policies to increase the availability of outpatient services in the aftermath of the pandemic. Counter measures will be critical to avoid a resurgence in vaccine-preventable diseases and complications stemming from non-communicable, chronic health conditions.

Keywords

Public health
Vaccination
COVID-19
Immunization
Public policy

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