The prevalence and the distribution of chronic diseases became of overwhelming importance with the ageing process of Brazilian population. These diseases are responsible by an increased demand of health services. It was analyzed the data from the sample of the Health Supplement of PNAD/98 (National Household Sample Survey). It was used the data from all self reported chronic diseases by sociodemographic variables and health services consumption. It was employed prevalence ratios and odds ratios, with 95% confidence interval to evaluate the presence of possible associations. As expected it was observed an increase of chronic diseases prevalence with age; and a decrease with educational and income level. It was found higher rates of chronic diseases in women and in the group without access to private health insurance. Consumption of health services was 1.8 fold for the chronic diseases group. It was not found an association between the mean number of medical visits and income level, although it was observed a clear differential in hospitalization rates, with higher rates of hospitalization in the higher income brackets. It was not also found differences of the mean number of medical visits between the owners of private health insurance and the users of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS).
Self reported chronic diseases; Prevalence; Sociodemographic differentials; Health services consumption
