Self-perceived health of adults users of Primary Health Care Services in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Abstract

Self-perceived health is based on both subjective and objective criteria and can be influenced by factors such as gender, age, social class and existing chronic disease. This paper describes self-perceived health in adults affiliated to the network of Primary Health Care (PHC) in the city of Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil. This is a population-based cross-sectional study. Self-perceived health was assessed based on the question: “Compared to someone from your age and gender, how would you rate your health?”. Responses were assembled as “good” or “bad”. Socioeconomic and demographic variables, as well as biological effects, lifestyle, health status and the relationship between patients and the Health Care System or doctors have been used in the hierarchical conceptual model in order to help the description of self-perception of health through modified Poisson regression. From 3,009 users, 2,355 (78.3%; CI: 74.9-81.3) believed to have good self-perceived health. Out of the total 1,013 (43%; CI: 39.3-46.9) were men, 1,229 belonged to C, D and E social classes (52.2%; CI: 40.2-63.9), 629 (26.7 %; IC: 26.5-30.1) belonged to age 18 to 30 years and 626 (26.6%; IC: 21.5-31.5) to 30 to 45 years of age. From those having self-perceived their health as “good”, 1,075 smoked (45.7%; CI: 40.9-50.6), 276 consumed more than 175g of alcohol per week (11.7%; CI: 10.2-13.4), 1,197 were sedentary (51.4%; CI: 49.1-53.7) and 573 suffered at least from one chronic disease (24.4%; CI: 20.9-28.2). By means of hierarchical model, we have observed that the probability of a person referring to his/her self-perceived health as good, diminished if they were women (PR: 0.92; CI: 0.88-0.95), smokers (PR: 0.92; CI: 0.88-0.96), had a chronic disease (PR: 0.78; CI: 0.72-0.84), or were users of the Health Services – at least four appointments per year (PR: 0.85; CI: 0.82-0.92). Conversely, not having been hospitalized (PR: 1.14; CI: 1.06-1.25) or been satisfied with the latest appointment (PR: 1.19; CI: 1.11-1.27) increased significantly the probability of a user to assess its health as “good”. Self-perceived health has proved to be influenced by biological and socialeconomic factors as well as existing attachment to health services. It should be noted that the more satisfied a patient was with PHC services, the better self-perception of health he had, which justifies the reorganization of the Brazilian national health care service (Sistema Único de Saúde) through the extension of present PHC network services, such as the Family Health Strategy (Estratégia Saúde da Família) program.