Prevalence of multimorbidity in Brazilian individuals: A population-based study

This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity in Brazilian individuals and its association with sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. This cross-sectional study used data from the National Health Survey conducted in 2019 with 88,531 Brazilian adults Multimorbidity is the presence of two or more non-communicable chronic diseases. Associated factors were assessed by calculating the prevalence ratio (PR) obtained using Poisson regression with robust variance. Multimorbidity was estimated in 29.9% (95%CI: 29.33% to 30.48%) of Brazilian individuals. In the multiple models, the prevalence was high in women (PR: 1.37; 95%CI: 1.32 to 1.42), individuals over 60 years (PR: 4.26; 95%CI: 3.87 to 4.69), non-employed (PR: 1.20; 95%CI: 1.15 to 1.26), individuals with obesity (PR: 1.49; 95%CI: 1.43 to 1.56), and smokers (PR: 1.24; 95%CI: 1.19 to 1.29). This study identified a high prevalence of multimorbidity and its association with sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. The monitoring of these outcomes may support the development of policies and services.