Assessment of growth monitoring in child care visits at the Family Health Strategy in two municipalities of Paraíba State, Brazil.

Abstract

to assess the process and structural aspects of child care visits at the Family Health Strategy, in relation to growth monitoring. evaluative study of implementation analysis, carried out in two municipalities of Paraíba State, Brazil; structural characteristics of the services were assessed and child care visits were observed for analysis of the working process. 119 visits (53 in one municipality and 66 in the other) were observed; they were conducted by 18 nurses who were in charge of child care visits (nine from each municipality); five of the nurses had no training to work in primary health care and four units did not have a scale; weight (84.9%), height (84.0%) and cephalic perimeter (82.7%) measurements were held more frequently than recommendations for mothers (11.8% and 29.4% of the visits about height and weight, respectively). child growth monitoring is an action not yet consolidated, with significant deficiencies in the process.