Primary Care and maternal and child health: perceptions of caregivers in a rural 'quilombola' community

Abstract

This study sought to evaluate the attributes of primary care, with a focus on child health, from the viewpoint of a 'quilombola' community in the north of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil (A quilombola is a resident of a quilombo in Brazil. They are the descendents of Afro-Brazilian slaves who escaped from slave plantations that existed in Brazil until abolition in 1888). It is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a quantitative approach. The Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCA-Tool, child version) was used and applied to the main caregivers of child residents duly registered in the quilombola community. The attributes of primary care were assessed using scores awarded by caregivers, according to the criteria of the instrument. Only two attributes of primary care revealed satisfactory values: Access-Use and Information Coordination-System. The lowest scores were for the attributes of Family Guidance and Access-accessibility. The overall score was also below the satisfactory assessment. The results register low fidelity to attributes of primary care, as perceived by caregivers, and highlight the need for greater efforts to adapt the new model of care for the population under scrutiny.