Municipal spending on primary health care in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil: an ecological study

Abstract

The study's objective was to explore the association between the components of fixed and variable Minimum Basic Care (Portuguese: PAB), sociodemographic factors, epidemiological profile, and municipal spending in primary health care in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. An ecological study in 496 municipalities (counties) in the state was carried out. Mean variable municipal spending from 2011 to 2013 from the financial block of primary health care, representing the actual spending with federal budget transfers, was based on data from the Management Report of the Strategic Management Support Room, and multiple linear regression was used. To adjust the model, variables were grouped in five blocks according to the study's objective. Mean spending on primary health care was BRL 81.20 (SD ± 35.50) per inhabitant-year. The block of variables comprising the fixed PAB component explained 39% (R2 = 0.39) of the variability in spending between municipalities, while for the variable PAB block, R2 was 0.82, in the sociodemographic block, R2 was 0.26, in the structure-performance block R2 was 0.46, and in the epidemiological profile block the R2 was 0.15. In the final model, the variable associated with the highest estimated values for spending on primary health care was the rate of family health teams. Municipalities with 135 to 41 teams per 100,000 inhabitant-years spend BRL 51.00 more per capita than municipalities with zero to 0 to 8 teams. Spending on primary health care appears to be linked more to federal induction than to factors associated with health care demand, such as the demographic and epidemiological profile of the municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.