Health production: analysis of doctors’ health actions in the More Doctors program

Abstract

OBJECTIVE Analyze the health actions carried out by the Cuban cooperated physicians and their relationship with socioeconomic characteristics of the municipalities, contained in the first supervision visit report, in 2015. METHODS This is a quantitative research that used secondary data from the reports of the 1st supervision visit of the "More Doctors Program". The dependent variables were the health actions, and the independent variables were the type of municipality, Human Development Index (HDI), Investment in Primary Health Care (PHC), health center coverage, rural population, and total population. Multiple correspondence analysis was used to identify the latent variable, related to the profile of the professional with respect to the actions/procedures carried out to which the characteristics of the municipalities were associated through frequency analysis. RESULTS Three profiles of professionals were obtained, who have their practices associated with the professional training, consolidating as a determining factor for carrying out actions compatible with the actual needs of the population. Such findings were associated with the socioeconomic variables, with emphasis on funding, health center infrastructure, and coverage. CONCLUSIONS From the observed results, we suggest strategies to expand the scope of the practices carried out in Primary Health Care, from the perspective of training and continuing education of health professionals, and the focus on the everyday life of the service being of paramount importance.