The Cidacs experience: Harnessing Brazilian information systems to drive public health research

This blog offers a preview of the keynote by Helena Benes Matos da Silva at the ADR UK Conference 2025. She will share insights from the work of the Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health (Cidacs), focusing on how linked administrative data in Brazil is transforming public health research, particularly for populations at risk of poor outcomes. 

What will you share in your ADR UK Conference 2025 keynote?

In my keynote, I will discuss the experience of Cidacs in using linked data from administrative information systems to generate robust evidence. This evidence helps us understand the impact of public policies and the role of social determinants on health outcomes in the Brazilian population, with a special focus on socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. 

How does the Brazilian National Health System collect and use data?

The Brazilian National Health System, known as Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), is built on the systematic collection of information for both administrative purposes and epidemiological surveillance. Brazil maintains a range of national–level information systems, each targeting specific areas such as births, mortality, hospitalisations, food and nutrition surveillance, and compulsory disease notifications. Each system operates with its own protocols, electronic records, and variables tailored to the events it captures. 

How do these linked datasets help answer public health questions?

Building on the high quality, comprehensive coverage, and depth of Brazil’s administrative data, Cidacs developed an in-house infrastructure to link these systems at the individual level. This work led to the creation of two large-scale cohorts, which have been used to explore a wide array of public health questions concerning the Brazilian population. 

Why investigate social determinants of health?

The literature defines social determinants of health as the conditions in which people are born, live, work, and age. These include social, economic, cultural, and behavioural factors that shape health outcomes. Despite their recognised importance, there is still a gap in evidence on the health impacts of social protection policies – those that aim to mitigate poverty and potentially improve health. Cidacs researchers are actively addressing this gap, particularly by improving the evidence base on social determinants of health for impoverished and at risk populations.  Moreover, the scale of our data allows us to study rare exposures or outcomes that would be difficult to investigate using smaller datasets. I’ll share insights from our latest findings, which leverage one of the world’s largest epidemiologic cohorts based entirely on real-world data. Through the linkage of diverse systems, we can track individuals across their life course – from birth to death – while monitoring updates in health exposures and life adversities such as migration, violence, mental health issues, and climate-related disasters. 

What can we learn from the case study? 

I will also share my personal experience working with data from the Nutrition Surveillance System (SISVAN), linked to the Cidacs Birth Cohort, to examine child growth in relation to maternal ethnoracial groups in Brazil. By connecting these datasets, we combined sociodemographic information, birth records, and longitudinal anthropometric measurements collected through the primary healthcare system.  Our study highlighted persistent ethnoracial inequalities, with particularly unfavourable outcomes for children of Indigenous mothers. These findings underscore how racism functions as a structural social determinant of health, shaping the lived experiences of Black, Parda/Pardo, and Indigenous populations in Brazil. 

Final reflections 

In summary, this keynote will explore how the linkage of administrative information systems in Brazil is shaping the future of research, enabling large-scale, national-level studies that include at risk populations often overlooked by smaller or more localised research efforts. In a country of continental proportions, administrative data helps us detect and quantify health inequalities and identify groups at higher risk of preventable morbidity and mortality.  Cidacs is a collaborative effort involving researchers, policymakers, and public health professionals committed to understanding the interplay between social determinants and health outcomes. By studying how social and health policies influence these outcomes, Cidacs aims to support the development of evidence-based public policies that promote social justice and improve lives. 

Learn more 

• Visit the Cidacs website: https://cidacs.bahia.fiocruz.br/  
• Read the paper “Ethnoracial disparities in childhood growth trajectories in Brazil: a longitudinal nationwide study of four million children”: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10858530/  
• Explore the article “The Center for Data and Knowledge Integration for Health (CIDACS), an experience of linking health and social data in Brazil”: https://ijpds.org/article/view/1140 

Explore the Full ADR UK Conference Programme

To plan your visit and discover the full range of keynotes, workshops, and panels, you can view the full ADR UK Conference 2025 programme.

View the full conference programme