A health survey in riverine communities in Amazonas State, Brazil

NCBINCBI Logo Cad Saude Publica. 2018 Feb 19;34(2):e00002817. doi: 10.1590/0102-311X00002817. []. [Article in Portuguese; Abstract available in Portuguese from the publisher] Gama ASM1, Fernandes TG2, Parente RCP3, Secoli SR4. Author information 1 Instituto de Saúde e Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Coari, Brasil. 2 Faculdade de Educação Física e Fisioterapia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, Brasil. 3 Instituto Leônidas & Maria Deane, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Manaus, Brasil. 4 Escola de Enfermagem, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil. Abstractin English, Portuguese, Spanish Population-based health surveys are important tools for identifying disease determinants, especially in regions with widely dispersed populations and low health system coverage. The aim of this study was to describe the principal methodological aspects and to describe the socioeconomic, demographic, and health characteristics of the riverine populations of Coari, Amazonas State, Brazil. This was a population-based cross-sectional study in river-dwelling communities in the rural area of Coari, from April to July 2015. The probabilistic cluster sample consisted of 492 individuals. The results showed that the majority of the river-dwellers were females (53%), had up to 9 years of schooling (68.5%), and earned a monthly family income equivalent to one-third the minimum wage. The health problems reported in the previous 30 days featured conditions involving pain (45.2%). The main healthcare resources were allopathic medicines (70.3%), exceeding herbal remedies (44.3%). The river-dwellers travel an average of 60.4km and take some 4.2 hours to reach the urban area of Coari. The riverine population generally presents low economic status and limited access to the urban area. Health problems are mostly solved with allopathic medicines. Geographic characteristics, as barriers to access to health services and to improvements in living conditions for the riverine population, can limit the collection of epidemiological data on these populations. PMID: 29489939 DOI: 10.1590/0102-311X00002817 Free full text