Attributes of primary health care provided to children/adolescents with and without disabilities.

Abstract

This study sought to compare the attributes of the Primary Health Care (PHC) provided by caregivers of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) to children and adolescents with and without physical disabilities in Palmas (State of Tocantins, Brazil). This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a quantitative approach. For data collection, the PCA Tool-Brazil (child version) was applied to caregivers of children and adolescents residing and registered in family health teams. The attributes of primary care were evaluated through scores measured according to the criteria of the instrument. The results indicated that three attributes had scores above the cutoff point for the physically disabled population and two attributes for the population without disabilities. Overall, the data showed no significant differences between children with and without disabilities from the standpoint of caregivers. The general score also showed a below satisfactory score in both groups. The evaluation of the attributes of the PHC was characterized as low-quality care to children and adolescents, be they physically challenged or not, which highlights the fact that the biggest challenges lie in ensuring health care to children and adolescents.