Resumo

CAMPOS, Ana Cristina Viana et al. Socioeconomic and health indicators of primary health care in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte. Arq. Odontol. [online]. 2012, vol.48, n.1, pp. 06-12. ISSN 1516-0939.

Aim: To investigate the association between socioeconomic indicators and Primary Health Care indicators of the Brazilian Health Care System in the greater Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Materials and Methods: Ecological study based on secondary data from the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area (N= 33 municipalities). The independent variables included the overall health and oral health indicators from Primary Health Care. The exploratory variables included the literacy rate, Human Development Index, Gini Index, and Social Responsibility Index of the state of Minas Gerais. The Hierarchical Cluster analysis was conducted to subdivide the municipalities according to socioeconomic indicators, using the Between-linkage group method and the Squared Euclidean distance measure. The Primary Health Care indicators were compared among clusters by means of Student's t tests with a significance level of 5%. Results: The municipalities were grouped in two clusters: 1) worst (N=23) and 2) best (N=10) socioeconomic indicators. Cluster 1, as compared to cluster 2, presented a higher coverage of the Family Healthcare Strategy and a higher average of doctors' house calls (76.6± 32.5; 6.1 ± 24.6, respectively) (70.4 ± 27.9; 0.8 ± 0.6, respectively) (p < 0.05). Concerning the oral health indicators, no statistically significant difference could be observed among the clusters. Conclusion: The results suggest an association among the municipalities of the greater Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Area which present worse socioeconomic indicators and a higher coverage of the Family Healthcare and average of doctors' house calls.

Palavras-chave : Primary health care; Health status indicators; Social indicators.