Utilização dos serviços de saúde por uma população coberta pela estratégia saúde da família

Abstract

To study health services utilization by a population covered by the Family Health Estrategy (FHE) in Porto Alegre city, RS.A cross-sectional study was carried out on a sample of 2.988 subjects of all age groups, between July and September, 2003. Sampling process was designed to obtain a representative sample of the urban area from the neighborhoods covered by the FHE in Porto Alegre city, RS. Pre-coded questionnaires were applied to all residents of the selected households.Local FHE utilization and other health services prevalence, not counting FHE in the last 15 days was 13.5% (CI95% 12.3 – 14.7) and 13.1% (CI95% 11.8 – 14.3), respectively. Women, 60 years or older, white skin people, belonging to high socioeconomic level, with health insurance and self-reporting poor health were more likely to seek other health services, with the exception of FHE. Regarding FHE users, the utilization pattern is similar for the variables gender, age and health self-perception, but a higher utilization was observed among peop