ORIGINAL RESEARCH

 

The health school programme: a health promotion strategy in primary care in Brazil

 

 

Maria de Fátima Antero Sousa Machado^I; Fabiane do Amaral Gubert^II; Anya Pimentel Gomes Fernandes Vieira Meyer^III; Yana Paula Coêlho Correia Sampaio^IV; Maria Socorro de Araújo Dias^V; Ana Mattos Brito de Almeida^VI;Ana Patrícia Pereira Morais^VII; Anamaria Cavalcante e Silva^VIII; Jocileide Sales Campos^VIII; Maristela Inês Osawa Chagas^V; Emília Soares Chaves^IX

^IUniversidade Regional do Cariri(URCA) - Crato (CE), Brasil
^IIUniversidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) - Fortaleza(CE), Brasil
^IIIFundação Oswaldo Cruz, (FIOCRUZ) Fortaleza (CE), Brasil
^IVFaculdade de Medicina Estácio de Juazeiro do Norte, (Estácio FMJ) - Juazeiro do Norte (CE), Brasil
^VUniversidade Estadual Vale do Acaraú (UVA) - Sobral (CE), Brasil
^VIEscola de Saúde Pública do Ceará (ESPCE) - Fortaleza (CE), Brasil
^VIIUniversidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE) - Fortaleza (CE), Brasil
^VIIICentro Universitário Christus (UNICHRISTUS), Fortaleza (CE), Brasil
^IXUniversidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira (UNILAB) - Redenção (CE), Brasil

 

 

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ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: the Health School Programme (HSP) should be understood as a permanent development process. In this context, the actions of a policy aimed at children and adolescentsare paramount in the HSP
OBJECTIVE: to identify and describe the actions developed by the Family Health Group in the HSP, from the National Programme for ImprovingAccess and Quality of Primary Care (PIPCAQ
METHODS: this cross-sectional research used secondary data collected fromthe 17,202 groups who joined PIPCAQ in 2012
RESULTS: all regions showed significant results concerning the execution of school activities. the Northern region was the one that performed most school actions (80.5%), followed by the Northeast, Midwest, South and Southeast, respectively. However, some items, such as professional training in education and health work need to be streng the ned
CONCLUSION: HSP in Brazil has mobilised significant actions, even though it has not happened in homogeneously in all Brazilian regions

Keywords: health evaluation, health school programme, primary health care.

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INTRODUCTION

In recent years in Brazil, numerous initiatives and evaluation experiences in primary care have been implemented to achieve improvements in health policies^1,2.

The National Programme for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care (PIPCAQ) has, as its main objective, stimulating the expansion of access to, and improvements in,primary health care, in order to allow greater transparency and effectiveness of government actions aimed at primary healthcare.

The PIPCAQ evaluated different health promotions actions carried out in primary care by the Health School Programme (HSP). For the Health Ministry,³ the HSP is intended to provide a range of actions for prevention, promotion and attention in the health of children, adolescents and young students, from the basic level of public education, through to the communication between public schools and teams from the Family Health Strategy (FHS), and the realisation of actions directed at students³.

The HSP is now major public policy for childhood and adolescence. Among its components are clinical, nutritional and healthy eating promotion, ophthalmologic evaluation, and continuing education actions in health, physical activity, the promotion of a prevention culture in the school context and the inclusion of health education topics in the school political pedagogical project⁴.

Health promotion in the school environment should be understood as a process in permanent development. In order to review and improve actions in the public management of health and professional work processes, and obtain more efficient preventive interventions, these ones have to be realised in places that present the national strategies and programmes in a public health context.

The purpose of the study is therefore to identify and describe the actions developed in Brazilby the Family Health Teams (FHT) in the HSP.

 

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, carried out through secondary data provided by the Health Ministry, collected from 17,202 Family Health Teams (FHT) that joined the PIPCAQ in 2012 in Brazil.

The PIPCAQ aims to increase access to, and improve the quality of, primary health care, and is organised in four complementary and robust phases: (1) adherenceand contracting; (2) development; (3) external evaluation, and (4) re-contracting. Data for this study were extracted from the third phase of PIPCAQ and it was conducted by teaching and/or research institutions contracted by the Health Ministry in the period June to October 2012.

The third phase, external evaluation, has been carried out by means of an instrument application that sought to determine the conditions of access to health services and the care quality of participating municipalities and primary care groups. The assessment tool comprised four information gathering modules. Module I asked about the infrastructure, materials, supplies, and medicine conditions of the basic health unit. Module II sought information about the group work process and about the organisation'scare of the user and the actions taken by HSP. Module III checked user satisfaction with, and perception of, the health service, and Module IV represented a set of complementary information to the other modules, answered online by local management.

The results of this study are from Module II, specifically issues relating to health actions carried out within a school. The instrument contained questions relating to the activities of HSP conducted by groups of the FHS and was answered only with 'yes' or 'no', as follows: (Quadro 1).

The questionnaire was applied on location, conducted by an interviewer and only one professional group was selected to answer the questions, in a suitable place in the health unit and on a date agreed with the municipal management. The PIPCAQ participation of municipalities and teams was voluntary.

The data were automatically transferred to the national database of the Health Ministry. The study variables were the activities carried out by health professionals in school and areshown in Table 1. The analyses were performed by comparing the regions. TheStatistical Package for Social Sciences software was used (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA, version 19.0). Descriptive analyses were performed and categorical variables were analysed using non-parametric tests, Chi-square.

 

RESULTS

A significant association between the regions was observed, according the value of p < 0.0001 to all items of this study.

With regard to the activities that are performedin the schools, all regions showed impressive results, ranging from 80.5% to 69.4%. The Northern region performed more activities in this scenario, followed by the Northeast, Midwest, South and Southeast, respectively.

Children and adolescent care was observed in the study and the Northeast region achieved 47.7%. This same region showed better indicators when it came to entering information in the Planning, Budget and Finance Integrated Systemof the Ministry of Education (ISEM/HSP) with 29.5% of health groups doing so. The Southeast region only had 12.6% of the groups entering information into the system.

With regard tothe survey of the number of students and the need for health, 34.9% of health teams in the Northeast region performed it. The school actions planning item was considered more important than the schoolstudents survey, with 68.5% of the Northeast region. The Southeast region presented values of 28.2% and 56.8% to both items, respectively, considered the lowest among the regions of Brazil. Considering the importance of these two aspects (survey needsand planning of actions), the association was made between these variables, and the result was obtained that the regions who planned their activities also made a survey of health needswitha significance of p < 0.001.

On the issue of student clinical evaluation, the Midwest region presented at 10.4%, the region where most reported having performed this procedure. The update of the immunisation schedule is highlighted in the Northeast region (55.6%), followed by the North (52.6%). Northeastern Brazil also achieved better results in the early detection of hypertension (40.4%), neglected diseases (30.2%), anthropometric assessment (57.9%), hearing evaluation (16.0%), psychosocial assessment (25.4%), nutritional assessment (52.6%), oral health assessment (59.6%), and food security actions and healthy eating (61.1%). The South region performed best inophthalmic evaluation, with 24.6%.

For promotion and health education activities, the Northern region can be observed as the one that promoted activities in the theme of sexual and reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases, with 65.1% and preventing the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs at 47.7%.

In the item related to training activities for education professionals to work with health education and have discussions with school teachers, the Northeast region was highlighted,at 23.2% and 33.2%, respectively. The Southeast region had the lowest percentages in these two items with 13.3% and 20.1%, respectively. The results are shown in Table 2 below: (Table 1).

 

DISCUSSION

The HS Pat the national level has mobilised significant actions, even if not evenly across all regions, as shown in the PIPCAQ evaluation results in 2012. Thus, this study contributesan overview of the actions developed in the HSP across the country and can certainly produce a reflection on the range of this programme and its contributions to the improvement in the care of the population. The importance of evaluation studies that allow an overview of reality by the studying the specific case of research is highlighted, as in the case of the HSP in Brazil.

With regard to the promotion and health education actions, the Northern region was the one that most promoted these activities⁵. It is worth mentioning that the Northern and Northeast regions are the ones with more social and economic inequalities than in the rest of the country, with the longest inclusion of Family Strategy activities,and with closer, more effective links.

Difficulties in implementing routine care delivered by health professionals still exist, given that the other community demands of the FHG end up needing a different look. It is necessary here to rethink the HSP from a broader perspective, discussing public policies in each territory, providing appropriate environments, and reorienting health services beyond clinical and curative treat-ments. The health teams seem to hold few clinical actions with schools, since they have a high rate of activity, but still with a fragile routine⁶.

Studies^7,8, describe the difficulty of establishing a routine in helping adolescents and that this may be linked to the need for some professionals to overcome prejudice before delivering educational programmesin school. Little exposure to the issues of this age group can mean a tendency to view adolescents in a negative and stereotypical manner, embarrassment in dealing with sexuality and violence situations (which may require interdisciplinary interventions), and work overload, making access to learning difficult. These and other situations are factors which can influence this point. For many teenagers, health is still linked to 'absence of disease' and theirsense of invulnerabilityand immortality can justify the indifference and detachment that is observed in the behaviour of adolescents in relation to health services⁹.

The low data entry percentage in ISEM/HSP has hampered the monitoring and evaluation of these actions. Consistent monitoring allows managers andmunicipalities to demarcate their responsibilities and definethe areas of coverage of the FHS teams, contributing to the situational diagnosis based on social determinants in the epidemiological scenario, including the transfer of appropriate incentives for the units.

Studies indicate there is a lack of regularity in the system, a lack of professional training to fill in the spreadsheets and, according to the professionals themselves, the vast number of information systems deployed by the Health Ministry in recent years has demanded too mucheffort from the municipalities. To overcome this situation, caregivers need support in the planning process and decision-making powers with regard to information systems⁹.

The actions planning at school was also evaluated and considered one of the most positive aspects. This shows that health groups are participating in the guidelines proposed by the Health Ministry which states that the execution time of each HSP action is planned by the FHG, taking into account the school year and the school political pedagogical project⁴.

Research conducted in Fortaleza showed the gradual strengthening of the integrationof the education and health sectors, promoting the inter-sectoral approach proposed by the Unified Health System, despite the challenges such as difficulty maintaining these actions¹⁰.

The school environment has been recognised as a beneficial setting for promoting health practices, prevention and health education. In this context, it reinforces the prevention of health problems, contributing to the creation of conditions for student learning, and the construction of a social care system, focusing on the promotion of citizenship and human rights. It provides a strengthening of the capacity to cope with vulnerabilities in the health field, which can compromise full school development¹¹.Thus, it is within this approach,a health programme at school, inserted and integrated into daily life and school culture, is understood and justified. It is a very important reference space for children and teenagers, who increasingly develop their experiences within significant socialisationspaces and community life¹¹.

It was found that the clinical evaluation of schoolswas used for some of the health units in Brazil. To improve care of children and adolescents,realisingthe clinical evaluation is necessary to provide adequate physical spaces¹² and transport for moving teams, as this becomes an essential resource for maintaining frequent contact between users and staff¹³, and providing innovative educational technologies that streamline and facilitate teaching and learning¹⁴.

The work with the schoolsregarding health education showed actions directed at promoting sexual and reproductive healthwere the most frequently implemented across the country, with high percentages in all regions. According to the Health Ministry⁴ there has been an increase in the pregnancy rate in girls in recent decades.Also, teenagers have become more exposed to sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, with the inappropriate use of contraceptive methods, coupled with lack of knowledge of, and access to, them. Another important topic discussed at school was the use of alcohol and drugs, and the Northern region was highlighted again. In this sense, the school's partnership with primary care is essential for dialogue, access to information and the re-organisation of practice is the main focus.

With regard to training for operations in the HSP, the study showed that the actions of this nature are not well performed. Ongoing training for professionals who work in schools is essential, and the need to hire professionals from diverse backgrounds, with skills and experience in health promotion actions¹⁵.

The implications of these findings, to identify the actions taken by HSP, reaffirms the commitment that public policy has to Brazilian children and adolescents, directly impactingtheir quality of life and their health. The transfer of the knowledge between the education and health areas enhances the development of actions that favour the educational dimension of healthcare, the care of oneself, of others and the environment, generating effects on healthy development, the role of education and the community in which they live, allowing them to have options that improve their quality of life¹⁶.

Thus, to know and handle risk factors and the vulnerabilities of children and adolescents in promoting and protecting health will impact positively on quality of life, on learning conditions and, consequently, on the construction of citizenship¹¹.

Issues to be addressed in the school setting, such as sexuality, reveal the importance of developing an environment for health promotion through health education in this context, since it acts as a significant social space where teenagersbuild knowledge and promote health in decision-making from their experiences and life expectancies, and trivia about sexuality, among other aspects relating to health¹⁷.

However, it is important to emphasisethat it is not enough to have open space to promote health.Developing responsibility in the users in these practices, and student participation in the mobilisation, training and development of individual learning and social skills to deal with the processes of health and disease, is essential for implemen-tation of these actions¹⁸.

Thus, it is necessary that these are consistent with the assumptions of health promotion; however, those actions are still a challenge, given the predominance of curative characteristics and individualistic practices¹⁹.

For the realisation of educational activities, the involvement of all stakeholders is a unique pre-requisitefor the full exercise of health²⁰, however in the context involving the HSP, one of the challenges for implementation is the training of education professionals to work with education in health.

Research should be implemented to give visibility to situations such as these. However, while in Brazil scientific production has been increasing significantly, this could increase even more with the proper training of health professionals who work with research in project management²¹.

Investments in permanent health education that contribute to the transformation of professional, educational and health practices, and also to the organisationof services, are essential strategies for improving theseHSP actions.¹¹

In this way, it has been shown that the HSP in Brazil has mobilisedsignificant actions, even if it has not performed homogeneously in all Brazilian regions;although all the regions have had elements evaluated by PIPCAQ by presenting the implementation of actions, theregions that have performed more actions are the North and Northeast.

Acknowledgement

Regional project coordinators (EC, PI and RN) of the Department of Public Health, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte/UFRN, Profs. Severina Alice Uchoa, Paulo Medeiro Rocha Themis Xavier Pinheiro.

 

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Manuscript submitted Oct 22 2014,
Accepted for publication Dec 19 2014.

 

 

Regional project coordinators (EC, PI and RN) of the Department of Public Health, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte/UFRN, Profs. Severina Alice Uchoa, Paulo Medeiro Rocha Themis Xavier Pinheiro.
Corresponding author: Maria de Fátima Antero Sousa Machado. E-mail: fatimaantero@uol.com.br