Census of the Primary Health Care structure in Brazil (2012): potential coverage estimates*

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE:

to estimate and discuss selected indicators of Primary Health Care (PHC) structure in Brazil in 2012.

METHODS:

a descriptive ecological study was carried out using Primary Health Care Centre census data from the National Program for Access and Quality Improvement in Primary Care (PMAQ-AB); potential coverage indicators were estimated for infrastructure, health team composition and services available.

RESULTS:

the results revealed high coverage (≥70%) in Brazil for Community Health Agents (87.6%), teams providing care 5 days or more a week (71.4%), in 2 or more daily periods (70%), with nursing care services (70.9%) and dressing changes (70.4%); on the other hand, coverage is still poor (≤30%) for teams in health centres with adequate external signage (25.4%), delivering care at the weekend (28.4%) and reception of service users by health professionals (10.4%).

CONCLUSION:

the findings of this study point to the great inequalities between Brazilian states in potential coverage as shown by APS structure indicators.

Keywords:
Health Evaluation; Structure of Services; Primary Health Care