Coordination of care and quality of healthcare for women and children in the PMAQ

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the association between coordination of care and quality of healthcare for women and children in primary healthcare in Brazil. A cross-sectional study was performed with data from 30,523 teams that participated in the Program for Improvement in Access and Quality of Basic Care (PMAQ) in 2013. Logistic regression was performed, in which the dependent variable was quality of healthcare for women and children and the independent variable was level of coordination of care. The multivariate analysis included variables that presented p < 0.05. The model's fit was assessed with the Hosmer-Lemeshow test. The study assessed the results of 28,056 teams that conducted activities in coordination and healthcare for women and children simultaneously. In Brazil, the largest percentage of teams displayed low levels of coordination (68.5%). The highest levels of coordination were found in stratum 6 (57.2%) and the lowest in stratum 1 (78.5%). Among the major geographic regions, the North of Brazil showed the highest percentage of teams with low coordination (89.1%), while the Southeast had the most teams with high coordination (37.6%). More than two-thirds (70.5%) of the teams showed low quality of care in women's health, while 63.5% showed high level of care in children's health. High level of coordination is associated with high quality of care both in women's health (OR = 11.85) and children's health (OR = 8.79). The predominance of low levels of coordination of care in Brazil and low quality of healthcare for women reflect the need for coordinated action in this area.