Performance evaluation of health promotion actions taken by community health workers

Abstract

Based on the analyzes that were systematically performed on the work of Community Health Agents (ACS), the Ministry ofHealth constructed a training program for these professionals in which the skills that should compose their profile were defined,health promotion was one of them. The objective of this research was to describe and quantitatively represent healthpromotion actions proposed by the Ministry of Health. This is a quantitative research concerning the Collegiate RegionalManager (CGR) Alto Capivari in the Presidente Prudente-SP region. The subjects of this study were 97 ACS working in the17 teams of Family Health of the CGR. Data were collected through a Likert form that allows verifying the occurrence ofhealth promotion actions. The more frequently performed health promotion actions were the ones aimed at the developmentof self-care, injury prevention, and problems identification, and the less frequently performed actions were the onesof social participation and intersectoral approach. However, among the operationalization challenges of health promotionactions which were more emancipatory by ACS, the attribution of actions different from those proposed by the Ministry ofHealth, a number of families beyond the recommended and little offer of training for ACS were verified. ACS have potentialand perform important actions to promote health, yet this strategy should be prioritized by social and health public policiessince its development can positively impact health indicators.