Abstract
Objective: to identify the health actions aimed at reducing child mortality in primary care in a county of SãoPaulo, Brazil. Methods: an exploratory study with a quantitative approach. 54 health professionals (nurses,doctors and community health agents) participated in this study in three health units selected. Results: mostparticipants reported to develop actions to encourage breast-feeding; of the children assisted, 59.3% had theirvaccination updated; 72.2% of doctors and nurses confirmed that the children have at least one appointmentin their first week of life. For planning in health care, 51.9% reported that sometimes there is health teamparticipation in the meetings. Conclusion: several actions correspond to those recommended by the child-care public policies. However, there are weaknesses pointing at the need to enhance the vision of the healthprofessionals for greater planning, adapting to the needs of the child population in order to reduce the deaths.
Highlights
In recent decades, there has been a breakthrough in the organization of health services in Brazil, which directly affected maternal and child health
Such transformations influenced on child health indicators in a positive way; the coefficients of child mortality showed a significant reduction, the access to health services and to the health interventions directed at this population, were expanded, regional inequalities have been reduced and the duration of breastfeeding has increased substantially[1]
Even with the advances achieved through the organization of health services and public policies to protect the health of children, reducing the coefficient of child mortality is still a major challenge in the country for managers, health professionals and society, once even presenting an important decrease over the past decade, the rates are still high and there is a stagnation of neonatal mortality[2]
Summary
There has been a breakthrough in the organization of health services in Brazil, which directly affected maternal and child health. Such transformations influenced on child health indicators in a positive way; the coefficients of child mortality showed a significant reduction, the access to health services and to the health interventions directed at this population, were expanded, regional inequalities have been reduced and the duration of breastfeeding has increased substantially[1]. Even with the advances achieved through the organization of health services and public policies to protect the health of children, reducing the coefficient of child mortality is still a major challenge in the country for managers, health professionals and society, once even presenting an important decrease over the past decade, the rates are still high and there is a stagnation of neonatal mortality[2]. In 2000, the rate was 8.9 deaths/1000 born alive, in 2009 it was 6.1, in 2011 the rate was 5.7 deaths/1,000 born alive[3]
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