Physical Activity Behavior and Acute Myocardial Infarction, Stroke, and Sepsis Outcomes in Brazil: Insights from...

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, and sepsis represent leading causes of hospitalization and in-hospital mortality in Brazil. Despite their substantial burden, no previous study has simultaneously examined these three conditions alongside population-level physical activity indicators in Brazil using a complex network approach. This study investigated temporal and spatial patterns in hospitalizations, hospitalization days, and deaths for AMI, stroke, and sepsis in Brazil from 2009 to 2023, integrating sociodemographic and lifestyle data from 648,460 VIGITEL survey participants. Targeted eigenvector centrality networks were constructed to identify the most systemically relevant variables associated with each outcome. For AMI and sepsis, diabetes, hypertension, and mean age consistently ranked as the most central variables, while overweight or obesity dominated the stroke networks. Physical activity emerged as a transversal component across all three conditions, with activity frequency consistently outranking session duration in all nine network analyses performed. These findings suggest that the regularity of physical activity engagement carries greater population-level protective relevance than session length, highlighting physical activity promotion as a cost-effective public health strategy for simultaneously reducing the burden of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and infectious acute disease in Brazil.