PLOS Global Public Health · 11 authors, 8 centres
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This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 94,114 individuals in the Brazilian National Health Survey to compare cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors between slum and non-slum populations. After adjusting for socioeconomic factors, slum inhabitants had a higher prevalence of several behavioral risk factors, including low fruit and vegetable consumption, heavy alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity, but no difference in doctor-diagnosed metabolic risk factors or CVD.
The study used data from 94,114 respondents to the 2019 Brazilian National Health Survey, employing a UN definition to identify slum residents (14.4% of the sample). Poisson regression models were used to compare the prevalence of eleven binary CVD risk factors between slum and urban non-slum populations, adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics. Key results showed that slum inhabitants had a statistically higher adjusted prevalence of low vegetable consumption (APR 1.083), low fruit consumption (APR 1.037), heavy alcohol consumption (APR 1.045), and physical inactivity (APR 1.025) compared to urban non-slums. There were no statistically significant differences in the adjusted models for doctor-diagnosed metabolic risk factors (overweight, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol) or CVD. The analysis also identified lower education, lower income, and non-White race/ethnicity as associated with higher risk factor prevalence. The findings suggest that slum environments may be risk factors for poorer behavioral health outcomes and highlight the need for research into why these behavioral disparities do not translate into higher diagnosed metabolic disease rates.
