Objective: To estimate the prevalence of multimorbidity arising from chronic noncommunicable diseases among older residents of the northeast of Brazil and to analyze its association with sociodemographic, behavioral and anthropometric factors. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 3,141 older participants of the National Health Survey (2013). The dependent variable was multimorbidity, and the independent variables were sociodemographic, behavioral and anthropometric indicators. Descriptive, bivariate analyzes and logistic regression models were applied. Results: The prevalence of multimorbidity was 23.7%, with the state of Alagoas having the highest prevalence (27.2%). The occurrence of multimorbidity was associated with the female sex (OR=1.33; p=0.002), age over 80 years (OR=1.35; p=0.019) and being overweight (OR =1.37 p= 0.001). The protective factors were brown skin color (OR=0.79; p=0.013) and low weight (OR =0.71; p=0.017). Conclusion: The prevalence of multimorbidity in community-dwelling older adults in the northeast of Brazil was almost one quarter of the study population, with the state of Alagoas having the highest prevalence. Sex, age, skin color and being overweight were associated with the outcome. Knowledge of these factors can guide health care in the prevention, control and reduction of complications of these diseases, and support the strengthening of health education strategies and policies.

Background. The aim of our work was to replicate, in a Southern European population, the association reported in Northern populations between PTPRC locus and response to anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We also looked at associations between five RA risk alleles and treatment response. Methods. We evaluated associations between anti-TNF treatment responses assessed by DAS28 change and by EULAR response at six months in 383 Portuguese patients. Univariate and multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses were performed. In a second step to confirm our findings, we pooled our population with 265 Spanish patients. Results. No association was found between PTPRC rs10919563 allele and anti-TNF treatment response, neither in Portuguese modeling for several clinical variables nor in the overall population combining Portuguese and Spanish patients. The minor allele for RA susceptibility, rs3761847 SNP in TRAF1/C5 region, was associated with a poor response in linear and logistic univariate and multivariate regression analyses. No association was observed with the other allellic variants. Results were confirmed in the pooled analysis. Conclusion. This study did not replicate the association between PTPRC and the response to anti-TNF treatment in our Southern European population. We found that TRAF1/C5 risk RA variants potentially influence anti-TNF treatment response.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of concurrency of risk factors for Noncommunicable Diseases and non-random aggregation of these in Brazilian school adolescents. Method: Descriptive study, with data from the National School Health Survey (Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar), 2015. The prevalence of concurrent risk factors was estimated: smoking, alcohol use, physical inactivity and low consumption of fruits and vegetables. Aggregation was verified when the observed-expected prevalence ratio was greater than 1. The analyses were performed in Stata 15.0 software. Results: The proportion of concurrent risk factors was higher for those who had two risk factors (56.1%; 95%CI: 55.5-56.6). The most prevalent risk factors combination was “Low consumption of fruits and vegetables + Physical inactivity” (66%; 95% CI: 65.8-66.9). There was an aggregation of risk factors, and the highest ratio between observed and expected prevalence was: “Smoking + Alcohol” (79.0%; 95%CI: 73.8-84.2). Conclusion and implications for practice: The findings show a high prevalence of concurrent risk factors, with aggregation of these in adolescents. Identifying these risk groups may favor early interventions by minimizing exposure and targeting primary prevention strategies in early exposure to risk factors.

Resumo O objetivo deste estudo é analisar a adequação das técnicas de aferição e os pontos de corte dos indicadores antropométricos de obesidade abdominal adotados no

Objective: To determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) and associated factors in 348 elderly residents of Campina Grande, Paraíba. Method: A household survey and clinical/laboratory assessment was conducted. The diagnosis of MS was based on the criteria of the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on the Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (NCEP-ATP III). The association between MS and socio-demographic factors, health status and lifestyle habits was investigated. The crude and adjusted prevalence ratios were obtained by Poisson regression. Variables with a significance lower than or equal to 0.2 (20%) were tested in a multivariate model. A p value≤0.05 was adopted for the acceptance of the associations in the final model. Results: MS was more prevalent among women (64.7%) and those with heart trouble. It was also found that, specifically for women, there was a higher prevalence of MS among those with osteoarthritis. Conclusion: The higher prevalence of MS among women and the association of MS with osteoarthritis in this group deserves attention, as this condition can cause functional limitation, affecting the quality of life of the elderly.