Programa Saúde da Família e procedimentos de atenção à criança nos municípios do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The family health program (PSF) incorporates and reaffirms the principles of the SUS and is structured from the family health unit, which aims to organize their actions under the principles of comprehensiveness and tiering, territoriality and customer registration, from a multidisciplinary team. The objective of this study was to evaluate through trend charts, whether the PSF expansion was accompanied by improvements in child health in municipalities of the State of Rio de Janeiro, between 1998 and 2010. The analysis was done by relating graphically using hospital services such as hospitalizations for pneumonia and dehydration in children, Pediatric procedures such as breastfeeding rates, use of oral rehydration therapy and childcare queries, with the coverage rate of the program. The PSF expansion seemed to be relatively little associated with increase in number of childcare queries in breastfeeding rates and the use of oral rehydration therapy and reduction in hospitalizations for pneumonia and dehydration property. These seemingly poor associations suggest that the PSF may not be generating the desired results. Of course, additional studies are needed to examine these associations.