Treatments for COPD in Brazil: 2013 National Health Survey

636 adults aged 40 or older with a self-reported medical diagnosis of COPD, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema were identified from a national survey of 60,202 Brazilian adults. The data, from a 2013 population-based cross-sectional study, shows that less than half (49.4%) of the diagnosed population reported using any treatment. Gabriela Ávila Marques authored the study, which found pharmacological treatment was most common, followed by oxygen therapy and physical therapy.

Use Cases

• Estimate national and regional treatment prevalence for COPD based on self-reported diagnosis and treatment types.
• Compare treatment patterns (pharmacological, physical therapy, oxygen therapy) between chronic bronchitis and emphysema patient subgroups.
• Analyze demographic or geographic disparities in COPD treatment access based on macro-region differences mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a large national survey with 60,202 adult interviews, providing a broad population base.
• Includes specific prevalence percentages with confidence intervals for different treatment types and patient subgroups.
• Allows for geographic comparison, showing statistically significant differences between macro-regions (e.g., South 53.8% vs. Northeast 41.2%).

Limitations

• Row count for the specific COPD patient cohort is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is from a single year (2013); freshness and contemporary relevance are unverified.

Provenance

Source

2013 Brazilian National Survey of Health (Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde)

Collection Method

Population-based cross-sectional study using self-reported medical diagnosis and treatment information.

Time Range

2013

Geography

Brazil, with results broken down by macro-region.