Non-communicable disease surveillance and population surveys

Abstract

A Vigilância de Doenças e Agravos Não Transmissíveis e os inquéritos populacionais EDITORIAL / EDITORIALT his supplement of Brazilian Journal of Epidemiology presents the results of the II National Adolescent School-based Health Survey (PeNSE), conducted in 2012, besides the analyses of the Telephone-Based Surveillance of Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases (VIGITEL), two important national health surveys. The second edition of PeNSE was conducted as a partnership between the Ministry of Health and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), with the assistance of the Ministry of Education. In 2012, the sample was larger and represented Brazil, Brazilian regions, the 26 State capitals and the Federal District, and new themes and questions were included. About 110 thousand students were interviewed, in public and private schools, especially the 9th grade of elementary school.Adolescence is a stage of life marked by autonomy and transformations, which are reflected on new practices and attitudes and on the exposure to several situations and risks, which may compromise the present and future health of the adolescent. Studies about the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, about the sexual behavior of students, and analyses considering the family as a protective factor, among others, show that knowing the magnitude of the problem is essential to plan health promotion interventions and actions, especially in the school environment.VIGITEL was established eight years ago, in 2006 in the 26 Brazilian capitals and in the Federal District. It was coordinated by the Ministry of Health, intermediated by the Health Surveillance Secretariat, with the support of the Group of Epidemiological Studies on Nutrition and Health (NUPENS), of Universidade de São Paulo. By means of telephone interviews assisted by a computer, VIGITEL uses probability samples of the adult population (18 years old or more), living in households with at least one landline in the year of the study, in each of the 26 Brazilian State capitals and in the Federal District; each year approximately 54,000 adults were interviewed in the Brazilian capitals.VIGITEL enables to improve the knowledge concerning the epidemiological profile of the adult population and it provides subsidies to States and cities to plan health promotion actions, being characterized as a health surveillance tool. In order to meet this objective, VIGITEL should be an annual and a continuous survey that analyzes historical series of health indicators, which are essential to consolidate the Non-Communicable Disease Surveillance in the country.

Construção da Vigilância das Doenças e Agravos Não Transmissíveis e os passos para sua inclusão na agenda da saúde pública do Espírito Santo

“…diversas iniciativas no campo de pesquisas populacionais como os Inquéritos de fatores de risco do VIGITEL em suas diversas versões, de 2006 a 2019, e a Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar em suas várias edições. Todavia, as iniciativas estaduais no campo dos inquéritos populacionais não lograram êxito na realização de investigações de abrangência estadual, que correspondessem à experiência nacional19,20 . Diversos fatores limitaram a realização do VIGITEL no ES, que forneceria uma linha de base para monitoramento futuro e permitiria a avaliação dos impactos das políticas públicas sobre a prevalência dos FR associados às DANT no estado.…”