Parkinson's disease and hospital admissions in the Brazilian National Health System: Epidemiological findings from 2019 to 2020

Correa, T.; Garcez, V.

Background and aims: Patients with Parkinson's disease have higher rates of hospital admissions and longer length of stay than patients without the disease. This study aims to evaluate the epidemiology of hospitalizations for Parkinson's disease in Brazil during 2019 and 2020. Methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive and retrospective study, which evaluated the epidemiology of hospital admissions for Parkinson's disease in the Brazilian National Health System in the years 2019 and 2020. Hospital admissions were evaluated by sex, race, and age group using the national database (DATASUS – Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System). Results: During this time period, there was a total of 1623 hospitalizations for Parkinson's disease in the Brazilian National Health System, with 947 (58.4%) hospital admissions in 2019 and 676 (41.6%) in 2020. Also, 972 (59.9%) patients were male and 651 (40.1%) were female. Regarding race (n = 1299);777 (59.8%) patients considered themselves white, 442 (34%) brown, 54 (4.2%) black and 26 (2%) others. Regarding age groups;278 (17.1%) were > 80 years old, 847 (52.2%) were 60–79, 453 (27.9%) were 40–59 and 45 (2.8%) were < 40. Conclusions: The majority of patients hospitalized for Parkinson's disease were male, white, and 60–79 years old. There was a decrease in hospital admissions for Parkinson's disease from 2019 to 2020, which may be related to the hospital's oversaturation by COVID-19. In addition to that, the disease is still little analyzed epidemiologically in the country and needs more attention.