Health Vulnerability Index and territorial clustering for Primary Health Care planning: a census-data and spatial analysis approach in Brazil

Misael de Souza Vieira; Gabriel Marcos de Morais Nascimento; Lygia Bueno Fragoso; Elaine Leandro Machado; João Flávio de Freitas Almeida

doi:10.1590/SciELOPreprints.18395

article.authors6ad0084b47cbb

Misael de Souza Vieira Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2920-9209
- Conceptualization
- Data Curation
- Investigation
- Methodology
- Software
- Visualization
- Writing – Original Draft Preparation
Gabriel Marcos de Morais Nascimento Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8045-605X
- Formal Analysis
- Methodology
- Investigation
- Validation
- Writing – Review & Editing
- Data Curation
Lygia Bueno Fragoso Prefeitura Municipal de Belo Horizonte https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8786-5483
- Conceptualization
- Project Administration
- Writing – Review & Editing
- Investigation
- Resources
Elaine Leandro Machado Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3226-3476
- Conceptualization
- Formal Analysis
- Investigation
- Methodology
- Validation
- Writing – Review & Editing
João Flávio de Freitas Almeida Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3884-217X
- Conceptualization
- Formal Analysis
- Project Administration
- Investigation
- Supervision
- Validation
- Writing – Original Draft Preparation

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.18395

Keywords:

Health vulnerability, Primary health care, Spatial clustering, Census data, Health care planning

Resumen

La Atención Primaria de Salud (APS) en el Sistema Único de Salud (SUS) de Brasil requiere herramientas de planificación territorial que aborden las desigualdades sociales y respalden la Estrategia de Salud Familiar (ESF). Este estudio propone un marco de apoyo a la toma de decisiones espaciales que integra un Índice de Vulnerabilidad a la Salud (IVSaúde) multidimensional con agrupamiento espacialmente restringido a nivel del sector censal. El IVS se construye a partir de variables del Censo Demográfico Brasileño de 2022 en los ámbitos de Infraestructura Urbana, Capital Humano, Ingresos y Empleo, y Vulnerabilidad Demográfica. El IVS resultante se utiliza luego en un algoritmo de agrupamiento jerárquico con restricciones espaciales que incorpora la contigüidad de Queen y límites poblacionales alineados con la ESF para generar regiones de planificación de APS homogéneas y contiguas. Los resultados muestran una reducción del 77,8 % en el número de unidades de planificación a nivel nacional, preservando la coherencia espacial y la homogeneidad interna. La estructura propuesta transforma datos detallados de vulnerabilidad en áreas geográficas de planificación operativamente significativas, proporcionando una base escalable y reproducible para la planificación territorial de la APS basada en las necesidades y para futuros modelos de asignación en el marco del SUS.

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Biografía del autor/a

Misael de Souza Vieira, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Misael de Souza leads is Industrial Engineer from UFMG and professional experience at Deloitte and Wabtec Corporation. He leads Axium Analytics, a strategic consultancy focused on diagnostic frameworks and process automation for high-level management. His research includes transforming complex data into strategic assets, bridging the gap between statistical rigor and operational efficiency, and he currently structure high-impact technical partnerships for both public and private sector projects.

Gabriel Marcos de Morais Nascimento, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Gabriel Marcos de Morais Nascimento is master's student in Production Engineering with a focus on Optimization and Operations Research at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Holds a B.Sc. in Production Engineering from the State University of Minas Gerais (UEMG, 2025). Former member of the Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modeling Laboratory (LQTMC), where he was a scientific initiation scholarship holder funded by FAPEMIG and CNPq. His research interests include modeling, optimization, and simulation of engineering systems and materials science.

Lygia Bueno Fragoso, Prefeitura Municipal de Belo Horizonte

Lygia Bueno Fragoso is Speech-therapist (UFMG, 2006) with a Master's in Biomechanics/Audiology (UFMG, 2013). She currently works at the Belo Horizonte Municipal Health Department (2023–present) and is postgraduate degree in Neurofunctional Rehabilitation. Research interests include audiology, auditory biomechanics, occupational noise, and childhood apraxia of speech.

Elaine Leandro Machado, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Elaine Leandro Machado is an Adjunct Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), working in Preventive and Social Medicine since 2019. Her research focuses on epidemiology, public health, injury and violence epidemiology, and non-communicable diseases. She has authored numerous articles on COVID-19, mental health, violence, and chronic disease management in Brazil.

João Flávio de Freitas Almeida, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Dr. João Flávio de Freitas Almeida is the Coordinator of the Postgraduate Production Engineering Programme at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Production Engineering at UFMG, where he teaches Production Planning, Simulation, Managerial Cost Accounting, and Operations Research for Health Care. His post-doctoral research was funded by CAPES at the Universities of Aalto (Finland) and Strasbourg (France). Since his PhD, Dr Almeida has been researching and teaching operations research methods for integrated planning and health care logistics. He also coordinates the LEPOINT, the Laboratory of Studies in Integrated Operations Planning, at UFMG, and research projects funded by CNPq, FAPEMIG, and other organisations. Dr Almeida is a reviewer for numerous national and international journals with a background in research on integrated planning for industry and health systems. Previously, Dr Almeida was a senior engineer in companies such as Usiminas and Vale. He also coordinate the research group: http://dgp.cnpq.br/dgp/espelhogrupo/0965752327401029