Quality of primary care for child health in states in the northeast region

Abstract

The scope of this article is to compare the assessment of users of health services who participated in the PMAQ-AB on child health in the states of the Brazilian Northeast. It is a cross-sectional study conducted with secondary data based on interviews with 5,116 users of 4,190 Family Health Teams in the nine states of the Northeast macroregion. Fourteen questions on the medical monitoring of children from 0 to 2 years old were evaluated. Proportions and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for each Unit of the Federation of the Brazilian Northeast. The indicators with the highest proportions were the Guthrie PKU test performed within seven days of life (84.4%), children always accompanied by the same professionals (79.1%), monitoring expected growth and development for age (84.9%), dietary guidance (86.3%) and up-to-date vaccination (95.3%). The indicators with the lowest proportions were guidance on the best position for the child to sleep in (45.7%) and whether or not the child’s health handbook (46.9%) was received. In all indicators, there were significant differences between the states analyzed. There are differences in the quality of child health care on offer according to the evaluation of users participating in the PMAQ-AB between states in the Northeast.