Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases: Profile and Financial Impact of Hospitalizations in the Brazilian National Health System

Metabolic diseases are associated with oxidative stress and inflammation in the body, altering human physiological functions. Nutritional diseases, on the other hand, are defined as the absence of balance between intake and utilization of nutrients by the body. Both groups of diseases are associated with lifestyle, characterized by inadequate dietary intake, intestinal dysbiosis, and sedentary behavior. The objective of this study is to analyze the profile and financial impact of hospitalizations for nutritional and metabolic diseases in the Brazilian National Health System (SUS) between 2017 and 2021. This is a documental, observational, retrospective study with quantitative design, which evaluated the sociodemographic, clinical profile and the financial impact of hospitalizations for metabolic disorders on the Unified Health System (SUS) in the period from January 2017 to December 2021 in all regions of Brazil. The variables studied include sociodemographic (gender, age group and color/race) and clinical (number of hospitalizations, prevalence of hospitalizations according to regions, regime and character of hospitalizations, average length of stay, deaths, mortality rate and hospital expenditures). In general, the Southeast region had the most hospitalizations and the highest mortality rate, followed by the Northeast. The disease with the highest number of hospitalizations was Diabetes Mellitus in all regions with 130,767 procedures. The total amount spent by SUS for the three diseases (Obesity, Malnutrition, and Diabetes Mellitus) in the country was 932,166,082.2 Reais in this period. It was observed that nutritional and metabolic diseases represent a large portion of the hospitalization rates in the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), generating high expenditures for the public budget. With the increasing prevalence of these diseases and the reduction of investments in public health, it is necessary to reflect on effective interventions to reduce the development of complications from these conditions.