Family focus about tuberculosis from the viewpoint of community health workers

Abstract

The tuberculosis (TB) control is essential the work of Community Health Agents (CHW) from diagnosis to the outcome of cases. This study aimed to analyze the dimension of family focus on TB from the perspective of CHW in Porto Velho-RO. This is a descriptive, survey-type study, carried out cross-sectionally from a quantitative approach, with the CHW who worked in PHC in the urban area of the municipality through interviews with the Primary Care Assessment TooI questionnaire (PCATool), validated for Brazil and adapted for TB care. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, after complying with ethical precepts. 119 CHW were interviewed, whose perception always questioned the living conditions, knew about the people who lived with the TB patient and / or their family, requested information about the illnesses, asked about the presentation of the disease symptoms, requested sputum and / or X-ray and / or PPD and advised on the disease, treatment and other health problems. Such findings give rise to reflections on the fragility of the principles of longitudinality and integrality for greater resolution of PHC as an organizer of healthcare networking and coordinator of care.

Keywords:
tuberculosis; community health workers; Primary Health Care; health services research