Multimorbidity: A Panorama of Brazil

The demographic transition accompanied by the epidemiological transition, evidenced by the change in the health profile of the Brazilian population, brings important challenges to the Unified Health System. The accelerated aging of the population further accentuates the effects of the triple burden of diseases, placing society as a all in the face of this new reality. Important changes are underway, both economic and social. The Coronavirus pandemic has made this context even more complex, increasing inequalities, including in health, further impacting health services, which were excessively demanded in these three years, initially due to the global health challenge that found Brazil one of its most fertile grounds, and, subsequently, by the consequences left by the inevitable prioritization of the emerging disease, which led services to leave aside much of the care for chronic patients. Considering the gradual increase in the concomitant occurrence of multiple chronic diseases affecting the same individual, whether over the last few decades or throughout the citizen’s life, the current situation of multimorbidity deserves, at the very least, the attention of health authorities. This report characterizes multimorbidity in the country, presenting two examples of chronic disease management, one from the public sector and the other from the private sector.