Analysis of the distribution and composition of family health support centres in the state of paraíba, Brazil
International Journal of Development Research
Analysis of the distribution and composition of family health support centres in the state of paraíba, Brazil
Received 27th September, 2017; Received in revised form 14th October, 2017; Accepted 15th November, 2017; Published online 29th December, 2017
Copyright ©2017, Laís Alves Bernardino da Silva et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Objective: To analyse the distribution of Family Health Support Centres (NASF) modalities in Paraíba – Brazil, its professional profile and the evaluation of NASF by family health teams. Method: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study, with a quantitative approach. Data was collect from the databases of: Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, Department of Information Technology of Brazilian Unified Health System, National Registry for Health Establishments and Secretary of Health of the State of Paraíba. It was used the TabWin 3.6 b software to prepare the choropleth map, and data from the second external evaluation cycle of the National Program for Access and Quality Improvement in Primary Care to describe the professional composition of NASF. Results: Paraíba has 271 NASF that had the support positively evaluated, and in which predominate the action of physiotherapists, nutritionists and psychologists. Conclusion: The deployment of NASF is relevant for the strengthening of primary care. It is suggested to carry out studies on the influence of NASF on the work of the Family Health Strategy.