Rev Saúde Pública 2010;44(3) Original Articles

Article available from www.scielo.br/rsp Use of comorbidity measures to predict the risk of death in Brazilian in-patients OBJECTIVE: To assess the use of comorbidity measures to predict the risk of death in Brazilian in-patients. METHODS: Data from the Sistema de Informações Hospitalares do Sistema Único de Saúde (Unifi ed Health System Hospital Information System) were used, which enables only one secondary diagnosis to be recorded. A total of 1,607,697 hospitalizations were selected, all of which occurred in Brazil, between 2003 and 2004, and whose main diagnoses were: ischemic heart disease, congestive cardiac failure, stroke and pneumonia. Charlson Index and Elixhauser comorbidities were the comorbidity measures used. In addition, the simple record of a certain secondary diagnosis was also used. Logisti