EDITORIAL

 

The right to scientific information: one of the main elements of the unified health system

 

 

Luiz Carlos de Abreu^{I, II, III}; Valdelias Xavier Pereira^II; Romeu Paulo Martins Silva^III; Hugo Macedo Jr^II; Italla Maria Pinheiro Bezerra^{I, II, III}

^IPrograma de Mestrado em Políticas Públicas e Desenvolvimento Local. Escola Superior de Ciências da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Vitória - EMESCAM. Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brasil
^IILaboratório de Delineamento de Estudos e Escrita Científica. Faculdade de Medicina do ABC. Santo André, SP, Brasil
^IIIPrograma de Mestrado em Ciências da Saúde na Amazônia Ocidental. Rio Branco, Acre, Brasil

Correspondence

 

 

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ABSTRACT

Citizen care in the health field is a fundamental right provided by the federal constitution of Brazil. The Unified Health System (SUS) is one of the best and most important systems in the world and serves around 220 million people. The System is comprehensive and characterized by three pillars of support: universality, completeness and equity. The right to scientific information is one of the main elements of the SUS and the Journal of Human Growth and Development has contributed over its 27 years of existence providing a democratic scenario and a place to debate ideas in the field of public health and the irrefutable defence of SUS in Brazil. In this way, JHGD maintains its tradition of publishing articles devoted to the field of public health and contributing to the dissemination of knowledge and to the progress of science. The Journal intends to serve as a space for exchange knowledge among professionals in universities and help them to deal with the problems of human growth and development, improving the publication scenario of scientific articles refereed by peers, highlighting its commitment to communicate the knowledge obtained through ethic research with bilingual and free publications.

Keywords: unified health system, information, science.

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Citizen care in the health field is a fundamental right provided in the Federal Constitution of Brazil. The Unified Health System (SUS) is one of the best and most important systems in the world and serves around 220 million people. The System is comprehensive and characterized by three pillars of support: universality, completeness and equity.

Universality is linked to the guarantee of the right to health for all Brazilians, without discriminating the access to health services offered by SUS, and the integrity of care is understood as an articulated and continuous set of preventive actions and services, curatives, individual and collective, required for each case at all levels of the system's complexity.

Equity is characterized by appreciation, fair judgment, virtue of who or what (attitude, behaviour, fact, etc.) manifests sense of justice, impartiality, respect for equality of rights. It is the one of the basis of the SUS, governing its doctrinal principles, which assures actions and services for citizens that must be offered, regardless of the level of complexity that each case requires and the region where the individual resides (may be foreigners, as long as in Brazilian territory).

However, Mendes and Louvison¹, Viana et al.², explain that the public, universal, integral and single-direction of the SUS boundaries are in the process of rupture, given the phenomenon of "entrepreneurship" in engendering the regionalization of health, regionalization and "entrepreneurship" - as productions in coexistence and in tension. In this sense, it is necessary to problematize the event, considering that this logic is placed at the centre of the SUS given its constitutional orientation of organization as a regionalized and hierarchical network, by which it is not possible to achieve the integrity of health care³.

In this context, one of the aspects in reflection refers to the need of the right to scientific information, considered one of SUS's pillars. The Journal of Human Growth and Development has contributed over its 27 years of existence providing a democratic scenario and a place to debate ideas in the field of public health and the irrefutable defence of SUS in Brazil

Thus, contributions in the area of evaluation of satisfaction with the service satisfaction by users are common, however, assessing the service and satisfaction of those who serve the population is still a sensitive point in Brazil and in the rest of the world. Recently, Ball et al.⁴ reported that the scientific evidence is increasing regarding the shift of work activity, and also reported that the professionals are unsatisfied with the shifts of ≥12 hours of work and that there is deterioration in patient care. In another finding about workplace satisfaction, Pegorari et al.⁵ affirm that medical professionals are satisfied with the company and with professional recognition policies carried out by the company.

However, JHGD goes beyond the promotion of articles in the field of management. The findings of Dittz et al.⁶on maternal care of premature newborns bring as the innovation of the study that there is learning of the mother about the behaviour of the newborn, describing an instrument that favours the evaluation of the mother-child duet. In addition, the article also considers the "thousand days" period, which corresponds to the 40 weeks of gestation (280 days) added to the first two years of life (730 days), fundamental for the child to reach its maximum growth potential and development in adult life.

Araújo and Israel⁷ analysed the neuropsychomotor development (NPMD) of children from zero to three years of age and the risk factors associated with development, showing that low birth weight, family income and absence of the father are associated with risks of NPMD delay, with contribution to the field that these risk factors are systemic and multifactorial to NPMD and that public policies must be implemented to guarantee the window of opportunity for the growth and full development of this population of preterm newborns since hospital discharge, as a transformative mechanism for the quality of child development.

In the same line of care for infants and children, Goulart et al.⁸, evaluated the occurrence of hearing and speech disorders and associated factors in children and reported that the prevalence of speech disorders in the studied children was 22%, and the gender, age or suspected hearing impairment were not associated with the occurrence of speech disorders and/or auditory complaints, and continuous surveillance is necessary at this stage of the child's development.

In the evaluation of adolescents regarding growth and development, Costa et al.⁹, when assessing the agreement between two methods of predicting the final stature and the family channel with the final height reached (gold standard) by adolescents with diagnosis of normal variants of short stature, revealed the significant influence of the height of the parents in the final height; however, neither method showed good agreement when used as predictors of final height, since the height values were overestimated mainly by the Bayley-Pinneau method. When analysing the efficiency of two types of low-impact training on screen time and BMI of overweight adolescents, Magalhães et al.¹⁰ revealed that there was no pre- and post-intervention difference in screen time for the three groups, however, there was a reduction in BMI in both groups of exercises from the pre-to-post-training period.

When analysing the efficiency of two types of low-impact training on screen time and BMI of overweight adolescents, Magalhães et al.¹⁰ revealed that there was no pre and post-intervention difference in screen time for the three groups, however, there was a reduction in BMI in both groups of exercises from the pre-post-training period.

Dantas et al.¹¹, when comparing and associating the perception of body satisfaction according to the maturational development of adolescents, there was a body dissatisfaction perceived by the young, independent of sex, and an association was found between the accelerated maturational stage and the normal maturational stage, with BMI being the main predictor for this body dissatisfaction among adolescents.

In another scenario, in the field of sleep medicine, sleep is a physiological activity that is fundamental to the health and development (growth and learning) of the human being and that in adolescence the ideal time of sleeping hours for the young is around nine. Del Ciampo et al.¹² describe sleep characteristics of adolescents living in the city of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil, and highlights that almost half of the adolescents investigated sleep less than the minimum time considered ideal. In addition, most adolescents went to bed when they felt sleepy but they used electronic devices just before, presenting difficulty falling asleep even when they need to be woken up in the morning; as a result they felt sleepy during the day. A substantial proportion of the adolescents studied stayed up at night and slept during the day. Compared to the boys, the girls felt sleepy and slept during the day significantly. Their findings add to the body of evidence that demonstrates the need for good sleep quality as essential to full development and growth in the adolescent life cycle.

In the sequence, Brito et al.¹³ discuss the institutional reception, previously denominated institution shelter, which is one of the protection measures foreseen in the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent, and as a protection measure, the institutional reception cannot be confused with some of the socio-educational measures applied to adolescents who, possibly, carry out infractions. They corroborate with the progression of knowledge when assessing the identity states of adolescents living in an institutional reception situation and report that older adolescents showed greater impairments in the development of identity, with prevalence of more negative and immature states of identity, indicative of unpreparedness for leaving the institution with 18 years of age.

Borges, Figueiredo and Souto¹⁴ discuss the complex dietary behaviour, involving metabolic, physiological and environmental aspects of students characterized by social rhythm that influences the effect of food regulation at meal times, defined as Night Eating Syndrome (NES). They will determine the prevalence of NES among students of a Brazilian university and evaluate the association of behaviours of the syndrome with emotional, biological and environmental factors. They point out that there was a high prevalence of NES among Brazilian university students and an association was found of the behaviours of the syndrome with depressive, anxiety and stress symptoms, characterizing it as a public health problem.

Closing the life cycle, there is an interesting publication by Nascimento et al.¹⁵ on population aging, which is a worldwide phenomenon that has been occurring in developed countries and, more intensely and fast, in developing countries, as in Brazil. They evaluated the nutritional status of elderly women practicing regular physical exercise, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Lipschitz criteria, noting that there was a divergence between WHO and Lipschitz criteria. The WHO proved to be more sensitive to identify overweight and obesity and Lipschitz's normal weight and malnutrition. They also emphasized that the abdominal waist measured was more competent to detect the health risk, mainly in elderly eutrophic individuals.

Thus, JHGD maintains its tradition of publishing articles voted in the field of public health and contributing to the dissemination of knowledge and progress of science, including with emphasis on the publication of Figueiredo and Adami¹⁶, who present an analysis on the decision based on statistical analysis development, which allows researchers and students to be guided in the behaviour of these researches. Statistics have contributed significantly to the decision-making process, since much of what is done in science today is centred on quantitative methods.

Finally, the Journal of Human Growth and Development intends to serve as a space for the exchange of knowledge among professionals in universities and help them to deal with the problems of human growth and development. Since 1991, the journal has published research, reviews, case studies and innovative experiences aimed at promoting human growth and development, with emphasis on children and adolescents, but not exclusively.

The set of articles published throughout the year 2017, and especially in 27(3), reinforce this ideal. It maintains and improves the publication scenario of scientific articles refereed by peers, highlighting its commitment to communicate the knowledge obtained through ethic research with bilingual and free publications.

 

REFERENCES

1. Mendes A, Louvison M. O debate da regionalização em tempos de turbulência no SUS. Saúde Soc. 2015;24(2):393-402. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0104-12902015000200200        [ Links ]

2. Viana ALD, Miranda AS, Silva HP. Segmentos institucionais de gestão em saúde: descrição, tendências e cenários prospectivos. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, 2015.         [ Links ]

3. Santos L, Campos GWS. SUS Brasil: a região de saúde como o caminho. Saúde Soc. 2015;24(2):438-446. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0104-12902015000200004        [ Links ]

4. Ball J, Day T, Murrells T, Dall'Ora C, Rafferty AM, Griffiths P, et al. Cross-sectional examination of the association between shift length and hospital nurses job satisfaction and nurse reported quality measures. BMC Nurs. 2017;16:26. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12912-017-0221-7.         [ Links ]

5. Pegorari F, Morgado F, Alves BCA, Azallis LA, Junqueira VBC, Vicente MTA, et al. Satisfaction level of phisicians working in a social health organization of Unified Health System In Brazil. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3): 322-331. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.125095        [ Links ]

6. Dittz ES, Alves CRL, Duarte ED, Magalhães LC. Contribution of the Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) for the maternal care of preterm neonates. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3):262-271. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.125522        [ Links ]

7. Araujo LB, Mélo TR, Israel VL. Low birth weight, family income and paternal absence as risk factors in neuropsychomotor development. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3): 272-280. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.124072        [ Links ]

8. Goulart BNG, Chiari BM, Almeida CPB. Factors associated with speech, hearing and language disorders among children in a primary care outpatient center. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3): 281-287. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.124092        [ Links ]

9. Costa KCM, Tomita I, Barbieri MA, Bettiol H, Del Ciampo LA. Comparison of methods for final height assessment in adolescents with a normal variant short stature. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3): 288-293. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.131259        [ Links ]

10. Magalhães RL, Santos NS, Costa RF, Bones V, Kruel LFM. Effects of two types of low impact physical training on screen time among overweight adolescents. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3): 294-299. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.118505        [ Links ]

11. Dantas RPNC, Simões TBS, Santos PGMD, Dantas PMS, Cabral BGAT. Satisfaction of Body Image in Adolescents With Different Maturity Stages. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3): 300-306. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.127574        [ Links ]

12. Del Ciampo LA, Louro AL, Del Ciampo IRL, Ferraz IS. Characteristics of sleep habits among adolescents living in the city of Ribeirão Preto (SP). J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3): 307-314. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.107097        [ Links ]

13. Brito ES, Schoen TH, Marteleto MRF, Oliveira-Monteiro NR. Identity status of adolescents residing in institutional shelters. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3):315-321. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.141279        [ Links ]

14. Borges Km, Figueiredo FWS, Souto RP. Night eating syndrome and emotional states in university students. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3):332-341. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.14127        [ Links ]

15. Nascimento MM, Pereira LGD, Cordeiro PRN, Araújo LMG. Comparison and agreement of criteria for the BMI classification of physically active elderly women living in the Backlands, semi-arid Region. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3):342-349. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.128227        [ Links ]

16. Figueiredo FWS, Adami F. Steps for the decision making based on the statistical analyses. J Hum Growth Dev. 2017; 27(3): 350-352. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.141278        [ Links ]

 

 

Correspondence:
cdh.fsp@gmail.com

Manuscript received: November 2017
Manuscript accepted: December 2017
Version of record online: December 2017