Characteristics of basic health units and detection of tuberculosis cases

• Published in: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
• Main Authors: Marcia Ramos Costa, Rejane Christine de Sousa Queiroz, Thiago Augusto Hernandes Rocha, Núbia Cristina Da Silva, João Ricardo Nickenig Vissoci, Aline Sampieri Tonello, Elaine Thumé, Maria Nilza Lima Medeiros, Maria dos Remédios Freitas Carvalho Branco, Maria Elza Lima Sousa, Erika Bárbara Abreu Fonseca Thomaz, Luiz Augusto Facchini
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 2019
• Subjects: Tuberculosis; Primary health care; Structure of services; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0230-2018; https://doaj.org/article/31499510f9a64325ae253b83bdcfa4e5

Abstract INTRODUCTION Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious and contagious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB emerged in the 21st century as an unsolved public health problem. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between the characteristics of basic health units (BHUs) and the number of TB cases detected in Maranhão, Brazil. METHODS An ecological, analytical study was conducted using the municipalities in the state of Maranhão as the unit of analysis. Data regarding the number of detected TB cases was obtained from the Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação database, and the characteristics of the BHUs were obtained from the first cycle of data collection for the Program to Improve Access and Quality of Basic Care. The BHU structure was classified as adequate (80%-100%), partially adequate (60%-79%), poorly adequate (40%-59%), or inadequate (<40%) according to the presence of specified items. The number of BHUs per municipality in each adequacy category was estimated. Inflated Poisson regression analysis was performed to estimate the incidence density ratios (IDRs) and the 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). RESULTS Municipalities with a higher level of BHU adequacy had a higher number of detected TB cases (IDR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.01-2.60). CONCLUSIONS Better structured health services in primary care may be associated with better detection and/or notification of TB cases.