1. Introduction

The Brazilian health care system has become one of the world’s most ambitious and celebrated models of primary health care (PHC), constitutionally reforming its health system to attempt to provide universal health coverage along the lines of the PHC elements defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizing equity, community participation, integration, shared financing among the different levels of government, participation by the private sector, and decentralization of health governance from the federal to the municipal level [1,2].

Through its National Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde, or SUS), Brazil launched the Family Health Program (Programa Saúde da Família, or PSF) in 1994. The PSF provides a broad range of primary care services through local family health teams, which include at least one physician, one nurse, one nurse assistant, and four community health agents (agentes comunitário de saúde, or ACS) [3]. Each team is assigned to a designated geographical area and is responsible for enrolling and monitoring the health status of up to 3500 people living in its area, providing primary care, health promotion and education services, and making referrals to other levels of care. As of 2009, 27,324 PSF teams covered 98 million people (50% of Brazil’s population) [4]. The program’s participatory health promotion focus attempts to reduce the progression toward expensive hospital-based care.

The coverage goal of the SUS faces serious obstacles from the volume of care needed to achieve universal access as well as the cost to Brazil’s health financing system. Given considerable investments in the PSF program to date, there has been little research into the extent to which the program is associated with changes in health status while controlling for other variables known to affect health [5–9].

With the revitalized interest in PHC, there has been a growing amount of research internationally in the last two decades on indicators measuring PHC effectiveness. One such indicator, Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSC), developed in 1990, refers to a category of diagnoses for which timely and effective outpatient care can help reduce the risks of hospitalization by either preventing the onset of an illness or condition, controlling an acute episodic illness or condition, or managing a chronic disease or condition [10]. ACSC as indicators of access and quality of primary care were first studied in the United States [10] and later in Canada [11] and Spain [12]. Several studies have shown that high rates of hospitalization for ACSC are associated with gaps in coverage of health services and/or deficient PHC [13–15]. The Brazilian Ministry of Health developed and validated a list of conditions sensitive to primary health care and is referred to as “primary care sensitive conditions” or internações por condições sensíveis à atenção primária (ICSAP). The final ICSAP list was based on systematic literature review, workshops with researchers, physicians, and health managers, peer review by the Brazilian Society for Family and Community Medicine and an official public comment period via Internet [16].

A common ICSAP in children in Brazil is gastroenteritis, which can lead to severe dehydration and death. The mortality rate for children aged less than 5 years in Brazil was 34 deaths per 1000 in 2004; approximately 12% of those deaths were attributable to diarrheal diseases (not including neonatal deaths) [17]. Mortality and prevalence of diarrheal diseases are directly related to socioeconomic status [18,19]. Several studies in Brazil have indicated that good hygiene, improvements in sanitation, and disposal of garbage have had significant impacts on the rate of diarrheal illnesses [20,21]. Given the well-known, measureable factors associated with this ICSAP, we examined the possible association between PSF coverage and declines in gastroenteritis hospitalization rates in children.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the PSF on hospitalization rates for gastroenteritis in children aged less than 5 years. Rotavirus vaccination programs for infants less than 16 weeks of age beginning in 2006 have been associated with declines in childhood mortality and hospitalization rates in Brazil [22]. Therefore, we examine years 1999–2007 before rotavirus vaccination would influence gastroenteritis hospitalization rates appreciably in this population. This ICSAP was evaluated through mixed quantitative and qualitative measures as a surrogate for the effect of primary care provision in Salvador, Bahia and its surrounding municipalities.

2. Materials and methods

Our mixed methods approach was utilized in ascertaining the outcomes of interest to (1) corroborate or test the consistency of findings across different methods; (2) elaborate or interpret findings collected using the other method; (3) design our analytic plan; and (4) explore theories or hypotheses based on differing or inconsistent findings using one or both methods. An adapted conceptual framework guided our approach (Fig. 1).

Figure 1

Adapted conceptual framework: determinants of hospitalization for ICSAP [32].

The geographic area of interest for this study was the state of Bahia’s Salvador microregion including the municipal capital, Salvador, Lauro de Freitas, Simões Filho, Candeias, Camaçari, Dias d’Ávila, São Francisco do Conde Madre de Deus, Itaparica, Vera Cruz, and surrounding municipalities of São Sebastião do Passé and Mata de São João. These 12 municipalities (of 417 in the state of Bahia) represent a population of approximately 14 million. The institutional review board and ethics committee of NYU and the ISC-UFBA approved this research study.

3. Results

Descriptive statistics (Table 1) show hospitalizations from 1999 to 2007 for gastroenteritis in children aged less than 5 years declined by 39% overall for the region, although rates varied considerably within individual municipalities. Expansion in provision of primary care was described by a ninefold increase in PSF coverage. Where availability of hospital beds increased, the number of doctors per capita decreased during this period. Changes in socioeconomic indicators were mixed. Improvements were made in the HDI, proportion of poor population, and decreasing illiteracy rate. Other factors, including urbanization and income disparity (GINI index), were shown to have a slightly increasing trend but were mostly stable over the period. Notably, considerable increases in the availability of clean water, sanitation, and garbage collection services were observed.

Rates of hospitalization for gastroenteritis across municipalities were variable in distribution across the region (Fig. 2). Trends in hospitalizations per capita by municipality were variable, but in general showed decreasing hospitalization rates among children aged less than 5 years for gastroenteritis (Table 1). When not assuming equal variances between the individual municipalities, the mean hospitalization rates for gastroenteritis among children aged less than five years were not significantly different (P = 0.766). This apparent variation between municipalities was further illustrated by both high PSF coverage and greatest hospitalizations being linked together (rather than being inversely proportional) in municipalities such as Vera Cruz, Mata de São João and São Sebastião do Passé. Other municipalities of Bahia tended to follow the hypothesis that as PSF coverage increases gastroenteritis hospitalizations will decrease.

Figure 2

Rates of gastroenteritis hospitalizations in children ages <5 years per capita, 1999–2007.

PSF coverage is described in regression models (Table 2) that control for within municipal variation of socioeconomic factors with fixed effects specification. Coverage by PSF was significantly associated with decreases in hospitalization rates with adjustment for increases in the HDI. However, after accounting for increasing clean water availability, permanent sanitation, and garbage collection services (Model 3) this association was no longer statistically significant. Thus, this measure of primary care provision was not shown to be a significant predictor independent of the effects of water availability, sanitation, and garbage collection.

Qualitative results do suggest some effect of PSF on health outcomes in the region. Results are grouped using domains identified in the adapted conceptual framework (Fig. 1). Health determinants affecting gastroenteritis included factors in the physical and political environments, demographics, and socioeconomic conditions (Fig. 3).

3.1. Environment

Figure 3

Matrix of topics, themes, and sub-themes. Qualitative analysis from key informant interviews on gastroenteritis.

A number of key factors surfaced in both physical and political environments. One major theme emerging from key informant interviews in terms of physical environment was that decreases in hospitalizations for gastroenteritis were due to improvements in sanitation, not health systems. “This reduction [of gastroenteritis] is attributable to the sanitation program not the PSF. In Salvador the cooperation with the PSF is not high.” Anxiety was expressed over urbanization and its effect on health. When asked about living conditions, another informant remarked, “poor families have terrible condition of health and poor living conditions as we have a lot of slums.” An unexpected theme emerging from several interviews was the effect of the political environment on PSF coverage. Management of the PSF is decentralized and directed by each municipality. Thus, local politicians’ priorities affect implementation of the PSF. In Salvador, there have been delays and difficulties in increasing PSF coverage partly due to changes in the political arena and prioritization of PSF improvements.

4. Discussion

The overall goal for this project was to assess the effect of the PSF on hospitalizations in children aged less than 5 years in the context of the ICSAP, gastroenteritis. According to the analysis, gastroenteritis hospitalizations trended downward between 1999 and 2007 in the 12 municipalities examined in Bahia. Using the conceptual framework (Fig. 1), there were a number of factors in addition to PSF contributing to hospitalization rates. From a quantitative perspective, factors related to permanent sewage systems and garbage collection were significantly associated with decreasing hospitalizations for gastroenteritis, whereas after controlling for these factors PSF coverage was not. These negative correlations were found to remain significant when controlling for factors including HDI, urbanization, and the proportion of poor population in a given municipal unit. Private/permanent water supply was not significantly associated with gastroenteritis hospitalization rates in regression models, although other studies describe water sources’ greater impact on mitigating burden of gastroenteritis among children [32].

Qualitative analysis and the literature review were both strongly supportive of sanitation system improvements as the primary reason for the decrease in gastroenteritis hospitalizations. The PSF, however, has had an impact by providing families with education on recognition of symptoms, oral rehydration therapy, and use of proper hand-washing techniques in preventing the spread of infection. Health care prevention activities have been disseminated through radio, community health fairs, in clinic waiting rooms and by agents in families’ homes.

The paradigm shift described by officials in the PSF has increased the level of health awareness, but not necessarily changed conditions predisposing poorer families to delay care, failing to see a primary care provider early, and resulting in child hospitalizations. Anecdotal evidence from qualitative interviews described poor individuals and families in Bahia spending an entire month’s salary to purchase health services for their sick child because of both an aversion to being seen as “lower” socioeconomic status and concerns for having their children’s needs met, such as being seen in a timely manner and when parents are available during late hours. Despite such concerns, the PSF also provides a place for acute medical care outside of the hospital setting, offering more preventive care. In municipalities with limited access to care and low PSF coverage, such as in Salvador, the PSF most likely has less of an impact than in those with better coverage. Further, larger studies using time-series analysis of the Northeast region of Brazil or all Brazilian municipalities covered by the PSF have described a robust effect on childhood gastroenteritis and other ICSAPs. For instance, in an analysis of aggregated data from Brazil’s 558 microregions important variation was present in hospitalization rates for ICSAPs stratified by municipalities with predominantly private or nonprofit hospital beds [33].

Alternatively, recent studies of gastroenteritis hospitalization rates associated with national programs for rotavirus vaccination in infants. Following the initiation of routine vaccination in 2006, significant declines were observed in rates of ages less than 5 years diarrhea-related mortality and hospital admissions in Brazil, with most pronounced decreases among children less than age 2 years where vaccine exposure was most prevalent [22]. The stabilization of gastroenteritis following control of sanitation and hygiene-related factors along with evidence of subsequent declines after initiation of routine rotavirus vaccination lends support to global and national recommendations for vaccination of infants as an important component to control this primary care-sensitive hospitalization.

SIH–SUS is a limited dataset; only information from the public payer system is included. Less than 20% of the population in Bahia has private health insurance; however this does not preclude them from coverage by the PSF. This makes it challenging to look broadly at public health in the region and make comparisons between outcomes in the private versus the public systems. The data are aggregated at the municipal level, making it difficult to infer individuals’ risk (ecological fallacy). The dataset for our particular investigation did not include some variables of interest, such as mortality due to gastroenteritis, all relevant disease codes, and data were missing or incomplete for some included variables (e.g. number of nurses per capita). Also, greater variation in rates in some municipalities can be described qualitatively as a function of changes in access to care or clinic infrastructure and controlled in regression analyses; validation of reporting to SUS prompted us to analyze all municipalities versus only those with stable rates, using fixed-effect specification to account for this variability. Despite this specification, it is possible that residual confounding by important covariates that are unknown or unmeasured exists in our model.

Qualitative data were limited to only a small purposive sample. Although information obtained was rich in content, such sampling may have contributed to a selection bias since all of those interviewed were or had been at an administrative level in the health system with the exception of two physicians. Language and cultural barriers may have contributed to misunderstanding or misinterpretation of key informant comments. Exposure to more clinics would have benefitted the study in terms of additional direct observations and increasing the number of interviews. The study also has limited generalizability due to the small geographic area examined relative to all of Brazil.

With the use of these ecological data and our qualitative findings, this analysis is limited to answering scientific questions specific to the Salvador microregion only. Thus, our study is intended to be hypothesis-generating rather than providing a basis for causal inference. Our investigation adds to the current literature describing associations between PSF coverage and ICSAPs, including childhood gastroenteritis hospitalizations, by providing a qualitative context (conceptual framework) to covariates typically only measureable at an ecologic level.

5. Conclusions

We conclude that public health efforts in the Salvador microregion, particularly those pertaining to infrastructure for sanitation and hygiene, rather than coverage by the PSF explain greater variation and improvement in hospitalization rates for gastroenteritis in children. Direct inputs into the PSF, such as incentives for provider entry and more patient-centered, convenient working hours, could contribute to strengthening the PSF’s role in improving primary health care outcomes in Brazil.

Competing interests

None.

Ethics approval

This study was conducted with the approval of the institutional review board at New York University and the ethics committee at Universidade Federal da Bahia.

Contributorship

All authors (L.J.M., G.S.C., P.N., M.S., M.C., E.M. and I.D.) were involved in the study design. G.S.C. and M.S. developed epidemiologic causal models. G.S.C. performed the statistical analysis and is the corresponding author for the paper. L.J.M. wrote the initial draft, and G.S.C., P.N. and M.S. assisted with the formatting and editing of the manuscript. All authors participated in the interpretation of the results, revising of the manuscript for important intellectual content and approval of the final draft.

Financial support

Funding for research in the New York University, Global Institute of Public Health was granted by the Macy Foundation. G.S.C. is supported by the National Institutes of Health Cancer Prevention Training Grant in Nutrition, Exercise & Genetics at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (R25CA094880).

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the following individuals and for their assistance and support: The Macy Foundation; at Instituto de Saúde Coletiva-UFBA, Bárbara Laisa Alves Moura and Renata Castro da Cunha; New York University Global Public Health faculty, Kristin Bright and James Macinko, and coordinator, Amy Joyce; Data Services and Support, Frank Lopresti, Mashfiqur Khan, Melissa Reese, and Himanshu J. Mistry; Language interpreters and translation, José Tadéu Tramontini Filho, Rita Soto, and Solange Figueiredo; Our colleagues at New York University, especially Ana Krieger. We are thankful to the editor and two referees whose constructive comments have helped us to improve the presentation of the paper.