Survey in RN reveals health problems for young people and adolescents

On March 23, the Public Health Secretariat and the Sub-Secretariat for Youth of Rio Grande do Norte announced the main data on the health demands of Rio Grande do Norte’s youth. Among the highlights are cases of hospitalization of girls and women after giving birth, as well as violence, which mainly affects young brown and black people. Young people and teenagers represent approximately 30% of the state’s population, with 3.3 million citizens, with young people making up 23% and teenagers making up 7%.

The results are part of the prospection of a care policy for youth and adolescence for the Unified Health System (SUS) in the Northeast states, the result of a partnership between state governments in Bahia, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and the city of Recife with the Fiocruz Youth Agenda and the Samuel Barnsley Pessoa School Health Center (CSEB) of the USP Faculty of Medicine. In Rio Grande do Norte, the Observatory of Children and Youth in Contexts of Violence (OBIJUV) at UFRN is also part of the initiative.

The idea is to respond to the health demands of adolescents and young people from primary care, taking as inspiration the Care Line for Adolescents and Young People (LCA&J) implemented in the state of São Paulo. Prospecting allows each state to identify local demands and decide how to direct health policies towards this public. This is what experts call “bottom-up” policy: it is made from the bottom up.

“Ascending constructions have great potential to respond to local needs. When we go to the territory, we have the possibility of building paths so that professionals have more effective directions to refer patients”, says the researcher responsible for prospecting the Care Line in RN, Pryscylla Fideles.

The Mossoró health region was chosen as the reference region. With the largest number of young people, this area contains 146 basic health units and 9 psychosocial care centers. It also presents high numbers of hospitalizations and deaths of young people and adolescents.

Although Mossoró covers 14% of young people and adolescents in Rio Grande do Norte, the region accounts for 20% of the total deaths from external causes in this population in RN. Among this population, 76% of deaths were caused by aggression in 2021, according to SUS data.

Violence and difficulties during childbirth stand out

To develop a line of care in Rio Grande do Norte, it was necessary to map all 1,306 primary care units and 55 psychosocial care centers in the state. The data is from 2021.

In women, pregnancy is the main cause, representing 80% of cases, especially among adolescents. The racial profile is also important: 73% of these women were black. Childbirth represents 10% of the causes of death among adolescent and young women in RN. According to researchers, this is evidence of problems in the quality of prenatal care.

Among men, the number of cases of violence draws attention, especially among brown and black people. “External causes” such as accidents, poisoning and violence are the main reasons for hospitalization of young people and adolescents, representing 75% of deaths in this group, especially among mixed-race people (77%). Brown people make up 51% of the population of Rio Grande do Norte.

For the Undersecretary of Youth of Rio Grande do Norte, Gabriel Medeiros, the data is important for including young people in health policies: “Youth are often invisible to public policies. Especially in health, due to the thesis that young people do not get sick. Producing data and developing a SUS structuring policy for youth is important to demystify this understanding”. Affirms.

SUS data revealed by Fiocruz in December reveal health problems for this population. Young people represent a third of victims of work accidents. Mental health problems are the leading cause of hospitalizations among young men. For women, one of the main reasons is sterilization.

“Data on mental health, sexual and reproductive health and worker health, to name three examples, prove that the Brazilian youth experience imposes health problems that justify special attention from public policies to this sector”, adds the undersecretary.

Care Line

Lines of Care are a strategy for organizing health care in the SUS, which seeks to articulate the entire network of services in a territory from Basic care to care for a specific population or health issue. The objective of the Fiocruz Youth Agenda, the CSEB LCA&J Research Team and the state secretariats is to develop a Line of Care specifically for young people and adolescents, a public that receives little attention from health services.

“Young people have different needs according to their age group and other social markers. For example, not all young people are teenagers”, explains André Sobrinho, coordinator of Agenda Jovem Fiocruz. “Despite suffering from various health problems, young people have difficulty accessing services. Therefore, a Care Line can offer better support to this population. This requires alignment between research and management, which opens up many possibilities for adapting to the territory”, he adds.