Adolescent health care in a primary health unit in Olinda, Brazil

Abstract

Objective: To characterize adolescent health care in a Family Health Unit in Olinda, Brazil. Material and Methods: The study carried out a census in a primary health unit, and results were obtained through the analysis of medical records from individuals aged 10-19 years. Data analysis was initially performed by descriptive statistics followed by association analysis using the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test (p≤0.05). Results: Of all registered adolescents (n=895), 54% were female. However, only 36.9% (n=330) had a care record from 10 to 19 years. Regarding the frequency with which adolescents used the health service, 89.1% performed no more than three visits throughout the entire adolescence period. Almost all care provided to adolescents had curative nature (82.7%) in relation to the preventive nature (17.3%). Conclusion: The results pointed out that adolescents seek the Family Health Unit predominantly in search of curative care and that the number of consultations is reduced and far from recommendations from the Paced and Integrated Programming Guideline of the Ministry of Health, which establishes a minimum of one medical consultation and two nursing consultations per year for adolescents and young people in general.