Avaliação dos atributos da Atenção Primária à Saúde por profissionais e Pessoas com Deficiência do município de João Pessoa

Abstract

Primary Health Care (PHC) plays a central role in the organization of health care, especially in the care of vulnerable populations, such as people with disabilities (PwD). Evaluating PHC is fundamental to identifying flaws and potentialities in the system, allowing for adjustments that promote greater equity and efficiency in the care provided. This study aimed to evaluate the essential and derived attributes of PHC based on the perception of professionals and PwD in the city of João Pessoa. This is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, involving 201 Family Health Strategy (FHS) professionals and 38 PwD, of which 18 answered the adult version and 20 answered the child version. The first stage was developed with the application of the PCATool Brazil professional version instrument to Family Health Team workers, and the second stage involved the application of the PCATool child and adult short versions to PwD using the Family Health Units (FHU) in the city of João Pessoa. The professional sample was defined using stratified sampling, and the user sample using the snowball sampling technique. The results showed that PHC was evaluated positively by professionals, obtaining an overall score of 7.29, a value that exceeds the cutoff point of 6.6, while PwD pointed out barriers related to essential and derived attributes, revealing a negative evaluation, in which some of the analyzed variables, such as first- contact access with the health system, longitudinality, and comprehensiveness, obtained medians below the cutoff point, resulting in an overall median of 5.22. It is concluded that, despite advances in the implementation of PHC, there are gaps, such as the fragility of accessibility and equity, that need to be addressed to ensure inclusive and effective care for PwD. This study contributes to the strengthening of public policies and inclusive care strategies in PHC.