The Health School Programme: A health promotion strategy in primary care in Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: the Health School Programme (HSP) should be understood as a permanent development process. In this context, the actions of a policy aimed at children and adolescentsare paramount in the HSP. Objective: to identify and describe the actions developed by the Family Health Group in the HSP, from the National Programme for ImprovingAccess and Quality of Primary Care (PIPCAQ). Methods: this cross-sectional research used secondary data collected fromthe 17,202 groups who joined PIPCAQ in 2012. Results: all regions showed significant results concerning the execution of school activities. the Northern region was the one that performed most school actions (80.5%), followed by the Northeast, Midwest, South and Southeast, respectively. However, some items, such as professional training in education and health work need to be streng the ned. Conclusion: HSP in Brazil has mobilised significant actions, even though it has not happened in homogeneously in all Brazilian regions.