fetch_datasus: Download DataSUS microdata

In microdatasus: Download and Process 'DataSUS' Files

Download DataSUS microdata

Description

Downloads published DBC files from DataSUS, reads them with read_dbc(), and combines the records in deterministic period, state, and file-part order.

Usage

fetch_datasus(
  year_start,
  month_start = NULL,
  year_end,
  month_end = NULL,
  uf = "all",
  information_system,
  vars = NULL,
  stop_on_error = FALSE,
  timeout = 240,
  track_source = FALSE,
  quiet = FALSE
)

Arguments

year_start, year_end	Numeric scalars giving the first and last requested years, inclusive.
month_start, month_end	Numeric scalars giving the first and last requested months, inclusive. Months are required for SIH, SIA, and CNES systems and ignored, with a warning, for annual systems.
uf	A Brazilian state abbreviation, a character vector of abbreviations, or "all". "all" cannot be combined with individual states. A warning alert is displayed when this argument is ignored for systems published only as national files.
information_system	A single system identifier listed in Supported systems.
vars	NULL, or a character vector of column names to retain. Selection is applied to each file before the files are combined.
stop_on_error	Logical scalar. If TRUE, abort after any listing, download, or read failure. If FALSE, warn and return the files that could be read successfully.
timeout	A positive numeric scalar giving the connection and transfer timeout, in seconds, for each network attempt.
track_source	Logical scalar. If TRUE, append a source column with the original DBC file name. This column is retained even when vars is supplied. The function aborts if the downloaded data already contain a column named source.
quiet	Logical scalar. If FALSE (the default), display the transfer progress reported by curl::curl_download() and announce each file before downloading it. If TRUE, suppress status messages, per-file announcements, and progress meters. Warnings and errors are not suppressed.

Details

The function first lists the relevant DataSUS directories and downloads only files present in those listings. When more than one publication represents the same system, period, state, and file part, definitive/current data take precedence over preliminary data, and current data take precedence over historical copies.

Downloads are sequential. Unless quiet = TRUE, transfer progress is displayed by curl::curl_download(). Transient network failures are retried up to two times; missing, empty, invalid DBC, and incompatible-schema files are not retried. Partial files and other temporary files are removed before the function returns or aborts.

Years and state abbreviations refer to DataSUS processing periods and places of processing, which may differ from dates or places of occurrence and residence contained in the records.

Value

A tibble containing all successfully read records, or NULL if no requested file could be read. No diagnostic attributes are added.

Supported systems

• SIH: "SIH-RD", "SIH-RJ", "SIH-SP", and "SIH-ER".

• SIM: "SIM-DO", "SIM-DOFET", "SIM-DOEXT", "SIM-DOINF", and "SIM-DOMAT".

• SINASC: "SINASC".

• CNES: "CNES-LT", "CNES-ST", "CNES-DC", "CNES-EQ", "CNES-SR", "CNES-HB", "CNES-PF", "CNES-EP", "CNES-RC", "CNES-IN", "CNES-EE", "CNES-EF", and "CNES-GM".

• SIA: "SIA-AB", "SIA-ABO", "SIA-ACF", "SIA-AD", "SIA-AN", "SIA-AM", "SIA-AQ", "SIA-AR", "SIA-ATD", "SIA-PA", "SIA-PS", and "SIA-SAD".

• SINAN: "SINAN-DENGUE", "SINAN-CHIKUNGUNYA", "SINAN-ZIKA", "SINAN-MALARIA", "SINAN-CHAGAS", "SINAN-LEISHMANIOSE-VISCERAL", "SINAN-LEISHMANIOSE-TEGUMENTAR", and "SINAN-LEPTOSPIROSE".

Network access

An Internet connection and FTP access to DataSUS are required. DataSUS may restrict FTP access from some countries.

References

Saldanha, R. F. (2026). Sistemas de Informação em Saúde no Brasil, especially the chapters on SIM, SINASC, SIH, SIA, SINAN, and CNES.

See Also

read_dbc() for local DBC files; process_sim(), process_sinasc(), process_sih(), process_sia(), process_cnes(), and the ⁠process_sinan_*()⁠ functions for system-specific recoding.

Examples

sim <- fetch_datasus(
  year_start = 2014,
  year_end = 2014,
  uf = "AC",
  information_system = "SIM-DO",
  vars = c("CODMUNRES", "DTOBITO", "CAUSABAS")
)

sih <- fetch_datasus(
  year_start = 2014,
  month_start = 1,
  year_end = 2014,
  month_end = 2,
  uf = c("AC", "RR"),
  information_system = "SIH-RD"
)

microdatasus documentation built on July 29, 2026, 5:08 p.m.