Health and quality nutrition: access costs and difificulties in public policy design in Argentina

TEMPORELLI KARINA, VIEGO VALENTINA

Vancouver

Simposio; Fourth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research; 2016

HSRG

Chronicdiseases are a serious public health problem in Argentina. According to the2013 National Risk Factor Survey, 32% of the adult urban population hashypertension, 19% suffer from hypercholesterolemia and 10% were diagnosed asdiabetics. In turn, this situation generatesstrong pressures on the health system. Although it has been widely recognizedthat socioeconomic conditions and lifestyles are closely related to chronicdiseases, the precise role and magnitude they exert on them are still not wellknown, especially in less developed countries. The objective of this paper is todetermine the contribution of variables such as biological constitution, habitsand socioeconomic status to high blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia anddiabetes in adult population in Argentina. Data were obtained from the 2013National Risk Factor Survey of a representative sample of 32365 adults livingin location with 5000 or more inhabitants. Aconditional probability model with 3 equations (known as triprobit) was used toestimate the effect of habits (smoke, alcohol abuse, physical activity, etc.),socioeconomic conditions (income, education, occupation) and somecharacteristics of the individual (age, gender, weight levels) on theprobability an adult be ill with hypertension, hypercholesterolemia ordiabetes. The estimation strategy followed proved to be more efficient than asingle equation probability model approach, as it can take into that the sameobservation (e.g. an individual) can simultaneously suffer the three diseases,which would lead to correlated errors between each equation. The estimate shows thatoverweight, obesity, education and poverty favor the emergence of hypertension,hypercholesterolemia and diabetes. Physicalinactivity and a having smoked in the past are also significant in the threediseases analyzed. Other habits do not exert a significant effect over thementioned diseases. Women tend to suffer more from hypertension andhypercholesterolemia than men. Also, although the three diseases tend toincrease with age, maturity per se increases the probability at a decreasingrate. Strategies to reduce overweightand obesity as well as changing habits regarding alcohol and sedentary habitsplay a key role in the prevention of chronic diseases in Argentina. Such strategies must be specially targeted at poorerhouseholds and less educated individuals in order to achieve efficacy.