Relationship between personal and environmental factors and prevalence of acquired physical impairment in Brazil-a population-based study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the relationship between personal and environmental factors and the prevalence of acquired physical impairment in adults and older persons in Brazil. We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from the 2013 National Health Survey. The response variable was self-reported acquired physical impairment. The explanatory variables were sex, race/skin color, education level, social class, paid employment, private health insurance, running water, and connection to a sewer network. The strength of association between the explanatory variables and response variable and respective 95% confidence intervals were estimated using Poisson Regression. Physical impairment was reported by 1.25% of the study population (n=55,369). After complete adjustment, being male and non-white, having a lower level of education, living alone, not being in paid employment, not having private health insurance, not having running water, and not living in a house connected to a sewer network were associated with higher prevalence of acquired physical impairment. The findings show that prevalence of physical impairment was higher among vulnerable groups and that personal and environmental factors are important elements that need to be assessed at the population level.