The Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health (Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia) held the international seminar “From local to global: Brazil's contributions to mental health”, on July 3rd and 4th. Focusing on the impact of social determinants of mental health and the Bolsa Família program, the event brought together world-renowned researchers in the area, such as Vikram Patel and John Naslund (Harvard), Daiane Machado (Cidacs/Fiocruz and Harvard) and Maurício Barreto (Cidacs /Fiocruz). Thiago Lima, Renata Alves and Erica Nascimento, from the Projects team, represented Fiotec at the event.
According to Thiago, it was important to closely monitor the results obtained by the survey. In addition of having the opportunity to show Fiotec's role in the management process, from the submission phase to the end of project execution, to key people in the study, such as PI, Co-PI, Fiocruz coordinators. “Fiotec participated from the beginning of the project, with the submission to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and hiring and partnership with Harvard and still, today, in its execution”, he says.
The objective of the event was to demonstrate to society the importance of physical and mental health, especially in young people, who are affected by cases of anxiety, panic and an increase in the suicide rate. Quantitative data acquired through population cohorts provided by Cidacs were presented.
The initiative is part of the project “Impact of social determinants and income transfers on the mental health of young people (Impacto dos determinantes sociais e das transferências de renda na saúde mental dos jovens)”, a partnership between Cidacs and Harvard University, with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and leadership by the researcher associated with Cidacs and Harvard, Daiane Machado.
Social determinants and mental health
Previous studies by Cidacs/Fiocruz showed that the Bolsa Família Program (PBF) reduced the chances of suicide by more than 50% among the Brazilian population benefiting from the social program. Furthermore, researches made by the Center showed the relationship of impact on the quality of health when these people have certain specificities, such as ethnic, racial, gender issues, among other factors, when associated with social determinants, such as the social, demographic and economic context. Such researches, according to Mauricio Barreto, are part of innovations that were created at the Center, with emphasis on the Cohort of 100 Million Brazilians, which gathers data from more than half of the Brazilian population, mainly from low-income people who are registered in the database of Cadastro Único (Unified Registry for Social Programs of the Brazilian government).
Data from indicate that around 13.5 million people are below the poverty line; there are 11 million illiterate Brazilians, according to data from the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), and more than 33 million people do not have access to public or private health services, according to data from the Institute of Health Policies Studies (Ieps – 2022). According to Daiane, studies and health interventions that are not reflecting with social inequalities and the relationship of social determinants would be crystallized in an obsolete model.
Seeking to advance previous studies that proved the reduction of suicide risks by people benefited by PBF, the project led by Daiane aims at understanding why this occur, without neglecting the social determinants and the risk factors to mental health. For this, data related to hospitalization, mortality, violence, socio-economical and demographic data, individual and municipal, as well as information on the participation in a nationwide governmental program, in other words, the PBF.
With information from the Cidacs.bahia portal.
