Resumo

DOTTO, Júlia de Melo et al. Quality assessment of primary health care accessible to the elderly in two districts of Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. RFO UPF [online]. 2016, vol.21, n.1, pp. 23-30. ISSN 1413-4012.

Objective: To assess Primary Health Care (PHC) instruction and to compare the quality of PHC among Basic Health Units (BHUs) and Family Health Units (FHUs) in two districts of Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Subjects and method: In this cross-sectional study, we interviewed 402 elderly selected through cluster sampling. Interviews were conducted using a sociodemographic questionnaire in addition to the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool-Brazil). Attributes with scores higher than or equal to 6.6, on a scale from 0 to 10, were found instructed for PHC. The descriptive analysis of variables was performed and the difference of variables between BHUs and FHUs was verified by the chi-square test. Results: From the 402 respondents, 69.7% were women, average age was 69.18 years, years of education was 4.91, and income was R$ 1,433.84. The majority (77.9%) used BHU services and 22.1% used FHUs. As for the quality of services, 22.9% were within the recommended by the essential PHC score. When comparing BHUs and FHUs, there was a statistically significanty difference regarding age (≤ 70 year-olds attended FHUs 71.9% vs. 58.3% for BHUs) and the following attributes: first contact (39.7% BHUs vs. 51.7% FHUs with PHC instruction, p = 0.044) and longitudinality (68.5% FHUs x 50% BHUs with PHC instruction, p=0.02). Conclusion: The results show the need for investments on PHC qualification, because even though the Family Health Strategy is prioritized in the reorganization of PHC, it was superior in only two attributes: first contact and longitudinality.

Palavras-chave : Health Care Epidemiology.; Health Care for the Elderly.; Elderly.; Primary Health Care..