Are Primary Health Care Features Associated with Reduced Late Neonatal Mortality in Brazil? An Ecological Study.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effect and efficiency of the characteristics of PHC facilities' structures and the work process of PHC teams on late neonatal mortality (LNM). METHODS: This ecological time-series study adopted 3.764 Brazilian municipalities as analysis units. The independent variables were sorted into three hierarchical levels and four blocks. The distal level consisted of economic and demographic variables; the intermediate level comprised health coverage and demand for services; and the proximal level included structure and work process. The dependent variable was LNM. A linear mixed-effects regression analysis with a hierarchical approach was performed, estimating the crude (ß) and adjusted (alpha = 5%) regression coefficients. Data involution analysis and municipalities were the decision-making unit according to their strata. RESULTS: LNM was directly associated with the number of live births and unemployment rate. LNM was inversely associated with the year, per capita income, the community health worker's strategy coverage, vaginal delivery, household visits, and available vaccines. In the 2002-2014 period, the number of municipalities efficient in reducing LNM dropped from 38 to 27. In 2014, a more significant investment occurred in the number of vaginal deliveries in almost all strata to make inefficient municipalities efficient. CONCLUSION FOR PRACTICE: The deaths of children aged 7-28 days are affected by the characteristics of the PHC structure and work process.

Is there a fair distribution of the structure of dental services in the capitals of the Brazilian Federative Units?

BACKGROUND: Brazilian Primary Care Facilities (PCF) provide primary care and must offer dental services for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases. According to a logic of promoting equity, PCF should be better structured in less developed places and with higher need for oral health services. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the structure of dental caries services in the capitals of the Brazilian Federative Units and identify whether socioeconomic factors and caries (need) are predictors of the oral health services structure. METHODS: This is an ecological study with variables retrieved from different secondary databases, clustered for the level of the federative capitals. Descriptive thematic maps were prepared, and structural equations were analyzed to identify oral health service structure's predictors (Alpha = 5%). Four models with different outcomes related to dental caries treatment were tested: 1) % of PCF with a fully equipped office; 2) % of PCF with sufficient instruments, and 3) % of PCF with sufficient supplies; 4) % of PCF with total structure. RESULTS: 21.6% of the PCF of the Brazilian capitals had a fully equipped office; 46.9% had sufficient instruments, and 30.0% had sufficient supplies for caries prevention and treatment. The four models evidenced proper fit indexes. A correlation between socioeconomic factors and the structure of oral health services was only noted in model 3. The worse the socioeconomic conditions, the lower the availability of dental supplies (standard factor loading: 0.92, P = 0.012). Estimates of total, direct and indirect effects showed that dental caries experience observed in the Brazilian population by SB-Brasil in 2010 did not affect the outcomes investigated. CONCLUSION: Material resources are not equitably distributed according to the socioeconomic conditions and oral health needs of the population of the Brazilian capitals, thus contributing to persistent oral health inequities in the country.

Oral primary care: an analysis of its impact on the incidence and mortality rates of oral cancer.

BACKGROUND: Oral cancer is a potentially fatal disease, especially when diagnosed in advanced stages. In Brazil, the primary health care (PHC) system is responsible for promoting oral health in order to prevent oral diseases. However, there is insufficient evidence to assess whether actions of the PHC system have some effect on the morbidity and mortality from oral cancer. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of PHC structure and work processes on the incidence and mortality rates of oral cancer after adjusting for contextual variables. METHODS: An ecological, longitudinal and analytical study was carried out. Data were obtained from different secondary data sources, including three surveys that were nationally representative of Brazilian PHC and carried out over the course of 10 years (2002-2012). Data were aggregated at the state level at different times. Oral cancer incidence and mortality rates, standardized by age and gender, served as the dependent variables. Covariables (sociodemographic, structure of basic health units, and work process in oral health) were entered in the regression models using a hierarchical approach based on a theoretical model. Analysis of mixed effects with random intercept model was also conducted (alpha = 5%). RESULTS: The oral cancer incidence rate was positively association with the proportion of of adults over 60 years (ß = 0.59; p = 0.010) and adult smokers (ß = 0.29; p = 0.010). The oral cancer related mortality rate was positively associated with the proportion of of adults over 60 years (ß = 0.24; p < 0.001) and the performance of preventative and diagnostic actions for oral cancer (ß = 0.02; p = 0.002). Mortality was inversely associated with the coverage of primary care teams (ß = -0.01; p < 0.006) and PHC financing (ß = -0.52-9; p = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: In Brazil, the PHC structure and work processes have been shown to help reduce the mortality rate of oral cancer, but not the incidence rate of the disease. We recommend expanding investments in PHC in order to prevent oral cancer related deaths.

Addressing geographic access barriers to emergency care services: a national ecologic study of hospitals in Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Unequal distribution of emergency care services is a critical barrier to be overcome to assure access to emergency and surgical care. Considering this context it was objective of the present work analyze geographic access barriers to emergency care services in Brazil. A secondary aim of the study is to define possible roles to be assumed by small hospitals in the Brazilian healthcare network to overcome geographic access challenges. METHODS: The present work can be classified as a cross-sectional ecological study. To carry out the present study, data of all 5843 Brazilian hospitals were categorized among high complexity centers and small hospitals. The geographical access barriers were identified through the use of two-step floating catchment area method. Once concluded the previous step an evaluation using the Getis-Ord-Gi method was performed to identify spatial clusters of municipalities with limited access to high complexity centers but well covered by well-equipped small hospitals. RESULTS: The analysis of accessibility index of high complexity centers highlighted large portions of the country with nearly zero hospital beds by inhabitant. In contrast, it was possible observe a group of 1595 municipalities with high accessibility to small hospitals, simultaneously with a low coverage of high complexity centers. Among the 1595 municipalities with good accessibility to small hospitals, 74% (1183) were covered by small hospitals with at least 60% of minimum emergency service requirements. The spatial clusters analysis aggregated 589 municipalities with high values related to minimum emergency service requirements. Small hospitals in these 589 cities could promote the equity in access to emergency services benefiting more than eight million people. CONCLUSIONS: There is a spatial disequilibrium within the country with prominent gaps in the health care network for emergency services. Taking this challenge into consideration, small hospitals could be a possible solution and foster equity in access to emergency and surgical care. However more investments in are necessary to improve small hospitals capabilities to fill this gap.

A protocol to identify non-classical risk factors for preterm births: the Brazilian Ribeirão Preto and São Luís prenatal cohort (BRISA).

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth is the main cause of morbidity and mortality during the perinatal period. Classical risk factors are held responsible for only 1/3 of preterm births and no current intervention has produced an appreciable reduction of this event. It is necessary to explore new hypotheses and mechanisms of causality by using an integrated approach, collaboration among research groups and less fragmented theoretical-methodological approaches in order to detect new risk factors and to formulate more effective intervention strategies. METHODS: The study will be conducted on a convenience cohort of Brazilian pregnant women recruited at public and private prenatal health services. A total of 1500 pregnant women in São Luís, and 1500 in Ribeirão Preto, will be invited for an interview and for the collection of biological specimens from the 22nd to the 25th week of gestational age (GA). At the time of delivery they will be reinterviewed. GA will be determined using an algorithm based on two criteria: date of last menstruation (DLM) and obstetric ultrasound (OUS) performed at less than 20 weeks of GA. Illicit drug consumption during pregnancy will be determined using a self-applied questionnaire and the following instruments will be used: perceived stress scale, Beck anxiety scale, screening for depression of the Center of Epidemiological Studies (CES-D), experiences of racial discrimination, social network and social support scale of the Medical Outcomes Study and violence (Abuse Assessment Screening and violence questionnaire of the WHO). Bacterial vaginosis, urinary tract infection and periodontal disease will also be identified. Neuroendocrine, immunoinflammatory and medical intervention hypotheses will be tested. The occurrence of elective cesarean section in the absence of labor will be used as a marker of medical intervention. CONCLUSION: Psychosocial, genetic and infectious mechanisms will be selected, since there are indications that they influence preterm birth (PTB). The studies will be conducted in two Brazilian cities with discrepant socioeconomic conditions. The expectation is to identify risk factors for PTB having a greater predictive power than classically studied factors. The final objective is to propose more effective interventions for the reduction of PTB, which, after being tested, might subsidize health policies.

Zika virus infection and microcephaly: Evidence regarding geospatial associations.

BACKGROUND: Although the Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic ceased to be a public health emergency by the end of 2016, studies to improve knowledge about this emerging disease are still needed, especially those investigating a causal relationship between ZIKV in pregnant women and microcephaly in neonates. However, there are still many challenges in describing the relationship between ZIKV and microcephaly. The few studies focusing on the epidemiological profile of ZIKV and its changes over time are largely limited to systematic reviews of case reports and dispersal mapping of ZIKV spread over time without quantitative methods to analyze patterns and their covariates. Since Brazil has been at the epicenter of the ZIKV epidemic, this study examines the geospatial association between ZIKV and microcephaly in Brazil. METHODS: Our study is categorized as a retrospective, ecological study based on secondary databases. Data were obtained from January to December 2016, from the following data sources: Brazilian System for Epidemiological Surveillance, Disease Notification System, System for Specialized Management Support, and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Data were aggregated by municipality. Incidence rates were estimated per 100,000 inhabitants. Analyses consisted of mapping the aggregated incidence rates of ZIKV and microcephaly, followed by a Getis-Ord-Gi spatial cluster analysis and a Bivariate Local Moran's I analysis. RESULTS: The incidence of ZIKV cases is changing the virus's spatial pattern, shifting from Brazil's Northeast region to the Midwest and North regions. The number of municipalities in clusters of microcephaly incidence is also shifting from the Northeast region to the Midwest and North, after a time lag is considered. Our findings suggest an increase in microcephaly incidence in the Midwest and North regions, associated with high levels of ZIKV infection months before. CONCLUSION: The greatest burden of microcephaly shifted from the Northeast to other Brazilian regions at the beginning of 2016. Brazil's Midwest region experienced an increase in microcephaly incidence associated with ZIKV incidence. This finding highlights an association between an increase in ZIKV infection with a rise in microcephaly cases after approximately three months.