Infant mortality and Primary Health Care Services in Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: The Child Mortality Coefficient, an indicator of the social and health conditions of the population, has the capacity to guide the proposal of public policies, installation and forecasting of human resources in health. Territories with high infant mortality tend to be more vulnerable and require more structured primary care. Objective: To map infant mortality and describe the geographic distribution of primary care services and human resources (concentration and care “gaps”) in Porto Alegre, in the years 2010 and 2014. Methods: Descriptive study, ecological design, employing secondary data available in health information systems. Data processing was performed by the Enyalius framework. Results: Of the 143 services, 65% have family health, with coverage of 36.5% of the population. The number of users adjoined per service ranges from 700 to 115,673 inhabitants; 35% of the services have less than 4,000 adjoined inhabitants. The distribution of doctors and nurses ranged from 0.14 to 5.71 per 4,000 inhabitants. Services with a high population density have a traditional operating model and a professional deficit. The regions of the Islands and of the Extreme South, places with high infant mortality, present, in a larger territorial area, an adequate number of doctors and nurses. There was a high heterogeneity in the distribution of infant mortality (zero to 52.63 per 1,000 live births) in 2014. Conclusion: One-third of the Porto Alegre population is assisted by family health. Locations with high infant mortality presented a number of doctors and nurses close to that recommended. This study generates hypotheses for future epidemiological investigations in the primary care area.