Performance of Brazilian municipalities in the supply of specialized oral health services

The study aimed to analyze factors associated with the availability of specialized dental services in Brazilian municipalities. This was an ecological study with a sample of 776 municipalities that participated in the first cycle of the Program to Improve Access and Quality of Dental Specialization Centers (PMAQ-CEO, in Portuguese) survey held in 2014. The study’s dependent variables consisted of a coefficient created with variables on the number of professionals and the workweek of dentists in the minimum set of specialties, per 10,000 inhabitants. Exploratory factor analysis was performed to create a score for the municipalities’ performance with the availability of specialized dental services. Factors associated with the municipalities’ performance were assessed with Pearson’s chi-square test, with the following municipal indicators as independent variables, categorized in tertiles: per capita income, Municipal Human Development Index (HDI-M), resident population, total health spending per inhabitant, and Oral Health Teams per 10,000 inhabitants. Higher performance with the availability of specialized oral health services was associated with municipalities having smaller populations (67.3%; CI: 61.6-73.0; p < 0.001), lower HDI-M (41.9%; CI: 35.8-48.0; p < 0.001), lower per capita income (41.2%; CI: 35.2-47.3; p < 0.001), and higher mean number of oral health teams per 10,000 inhabitants (50.6%; CI: 46.0-58.4; p < 0.001). The results show positive impacts from the implementation of the National Oral Health Policy in Brazil, meeting the goal of expanding the supply of secondary care services according to the principle of equity in care.

Keywords:
Dental Health Services; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation; Composite Indicators