Title
Going to scale with community-based primary care: An analysis of the family health program and infant mortality in Brazil, 1999-2004
Date Issued
01 November 2007
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Macinko J.
de Fátima Marinho de Souza M.
da Silva Simões C.
Ministerio de Desarrollo Social y Lucha contra el Hambre
Abstract
This article assesses the effects of an integrated community-based primary care program (Brazil's Family Health Program, known as the PSF) on microregional variations in infant mortality (IMR), neonatal mortality, and post-neonatal mortality rates from 1999 to 2004. The study utilized a pooled cross-sectional ecological analysis using panel data from Brazilian microregions, and controlled for measures of physicians and hospital beds per 1000 population, Hepatitis B coverage, the proportion of women without prenatal care and with no formal education, low birth weight births, population size, and poverty rates. The data covered all the 557 Brazilian microregions over a 6-year period (1999-2004). Results show that IMR declined about 13 percent from 1999 to 2004, while Family Health Program coverage increased from an average of about 14 to nearly 60 percent. Controlling for other health determinants, a 10 percent increase in Family Health Program coverage was associated with a 0.45 percent decrease in IMR, a 0.6 percent decline in post-neonatal mortality, and a 1 percent decline in diarrhea mortality (p<0.05). PSF program coverage was not associated with neonatal mortality rates. Lessons learned from the Brazilian experience may be helpful as other countries consider adopting community-based primary care approaches. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Start page
2070
End page
2080
Volume
65
Issue
10
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Pediatría Políticas de salud, Servicios de salud
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-35348895538
PubMed ID
Source
Social Science and Medicine
ISSN of the container
02779536
Sponsor(s)
This study was partially supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Frederico Guanais was supported by the National Council for Research and Development (CNPq). The conclusions presented in this paper represent the opinion of the authors alone.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus