Abstract
BackgroundThe shortage in Latin-American Primary Care (PC) workforce may be due to negative perceptions about it. These perceptions might be probably influenced by particular features of health systems and academic environments, thus varying between countries.MethodsObservational, analytic and cross-sectional multicountry study that evaluated 9,561 first and fifth-year medical students from 63 medical schools of 11 Latin American countries through a survey. Perceptions on PC work was evaluated through a previously validated scale. Tertiles of the scores were created in order to compare the different countries. Crude and adjusted prevalence ratios were calculated using simple and multiple Poisson regression with robust variance.ResultsApproximately 53% of subjects were female; mean age was 20.4±2.9 years; 35.5% were fifth-year students. Statistically significant differences were found between the study subjects’ country, using Peru as reference. Students from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Paraguay perceived PC work more positively, while those from Ecuador showed a less favorable position. No differences were found among perceptions of Bolivian, Salvadoran, Honduran and Venezuelan students when compared to their Peruvian peers.ConclusionsPerceptions of PC among medical students from Latin America vary according to country. Considering such differences can be of major importance for potential local specific interventions.
Highlights
30 years after Alma Ata’s declaration for health systems reform through Primary Health Care (PHC), there are still sanitary disparities considered politically, socially and economically unacceptable [1]
Perceptions of Primary Care (PC) among medical students from Latin America vary according to country
It is necessary to reinforce Primary Care (PC)—defined as the first level of care, the “family doctor-patient scenario”, [4]—which is the cornerstone of PHC [1]
Summary
30 years after Alma Ata’s declaration for health systems reform through Primary Health Care (PHC), there are still sanitary disparities considered politically, socially and economically unacceptable [1]. It is necessary to reinforce Primary Care (PC)—defined as the first level of care, the “family doctor-patient scenario”, [4]—which is the cornerstone of PHC [1]. It constitutes the structure where integral and integrated health delivery from all health professionals is coordinated with the different levels of healthcare. The shortage in Latin-American Primary Care (PC) workforce may be due to negative perceptions about it These perceptions might be probably influenced by particular features of health systems and academic environments, varying between countries
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