Since 2002, when it was in its fifth volume, the Brazilian Journal of Epidemiology has been complementing its quarterly issues with supplements focused on topics of clear interest to epidemiology and health, both in aspects of academic research and in those related to social management.

Thus, the eight supplements already published circulated issues of great interest, such as national health surveys, master plans for the development of epidemiology, roundtable texts of the Fifth Brazilian Congress of Epidemiology, population surveys, human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV), National Health Survey, Surveillance of Noncommunicable Diseases and Diseases, and social determinants of health.

This ninth supplement deals with a phenomenon that has accumulated interest and relevance throughout the world - aging -, through the presentation of research and results of the Health, Welfare and Aging Study (Estudo Saúde, Bem-Estar e Envelhecimento - SABE).

One of the first efforts to systematically obtain information about elderly people’s living conditions, the project was developed in São Paulo and in six other cities in Latin America and the Caribbean¹1. Lebrão ML, Laurenti R. Health, Well-Being and aging: the SABE Study in São Paulo, Brazil. Rev Bras Epidemiol 2005; 8(2): 127-41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1415-790X2005000200005
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1415-790X2005... . The Ministry of Health, the University of São Paulo (USP), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo - FAPESP) supported SABE in São Paulo from its beginning, in 2006, and the study became a panel, with replications in 2010 and 2015. This design makes it possible, among other analysis schemes, to study two types of changes: those present in individuals during aging and the changes in society reflected in each age range²2. National Research Council. Committee on Population and Committee on National Statistics. Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Preparing for an aging world: the case for Cross-National Research. Panel on a Research Agenda and New Data for an Aging World. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press; 2001..

The present supplement brings results from researches carried out with the 2010 data, some of them incorporating in a longitudinal way the information of 2000 and 2006. The wide variety of subjects and the great interest that they arouse should make of this supplement a mark in the publications on the epidemiology of aging.

It should be noted that both the field of knowledge formed by the epidemiology of aging and the SABE Study itself are difficult challenges for researchers and scholars, the first due to the breadth of the study object, and the second, due to complexity in the conception, organization, monitoring, and management of human or material resources.

Maria Lúcia Lebrão, professor at the Department of Epidemiology at the University of São Paulo’s School of Public Health (Faculdade de Saúde Pública - FSP), has committed to exactly these challenges since the beginning of the study: she worked on its format, the adequate translation of standardized questionnaires, sampling, recruitment and management of field staff, questionnaire reviews, bank formatting, field audits and processing. Ruy Laurenti was her partner in the initial actions, and Yeda Aparecida de Oliveira Duarte remained with Lúcia in those activities and in the ones that followed - analysis and publication of the results, recruitment of postgraduate students, follow-up and update seminars, and publication of results.

To the sadness of all who lived with her, Lucia went off prematurely, while continuing to support her activities and to follow the SABE until her last days, for as long as her strengths allowed her to. But she remains in the SABE and among all those who seek knowledge and research, in order to promote the changes necessary to lead to better aging. As she put it, “the idea of older people associated with illness and dependency has to be replaced by changes that make them stay active and independent for longer”.

Lúcia is the author of several texts in this supplement, including the chapter “Background, methodology and organization - 10 years of the SABE Study”. It is the best historical narrative of the study and, to a certain extent, her story itself.

References

Publication Dates