Apoio social segundo atributos da atenção primária antes e durante a pandemia da COVID-19: avaliação de usuários/as com hipertensão arterial e profissionais da saúde

Abstract

The understanding of the Social Support of people with arterial hypertension (SAH) and satisfaction with the services offered in Primary Health Care (PHC) are important tools in helping health professionals to manage SAH and can reflect an important quality measure of the services offered in PHC, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, this study aimed to evaluate the dimensions of the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool) “Focus on the Family” and “Orientation for the Community” in arterial hypertension care from the perspective of users and PHC professionals, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of João Pessoa/PB. This is a cross-sectional study with data referring to the years 2010, 2021 and 2022. The PCATool instrument (Portuguese version) for professionals was statistically validated through multivariate analysis. In addition, an instrument was applied to capture information regarding the social support network of people with high blood pressure during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the modeling and statistical tests carried out, composite indices were built to evaluate the items of the two dimensions. Regardless of the year evaluated, the composite indexes for the two dimensions were classified as unsatisfactory for users and satisfactory for health professionals. A support network of users with arterial hypertension was found, centered on the figure of the family and little on the community. There were indications that the pandemic made it difficult to manage blood pressure and contributed to worsen the perception of users regarding the provision of services evaluated in the dimensions studied, whose perceptions may be a reflection of a more generic situation observed in other municipalities within the performance of PHC services in Brazil. Significant differences (p-value < 0.05) were found between the views of the actors (users and professionals). In general, this divergence makes room for discussion about the real situation of PHC with regard to the service provided and captured by the proposed dimensions.