O Programa de Agentes Comunitários de Saúde (PACS) e os indicadores de saúde da família no Estado do Ceará

Abstract

The community health agents work as a link between the community health agents program (CHAP) and the community health services. Given their duties it is expected that the CHAP affects positively the health indexes, especially those related to families in need. Thus, this study intends to verify the importance of the CHAP on the improvement of twelve health indexes. The studied area includes the counties located in Ceara State, Brazil. For that, data were collected from 184 counties in Ceara from the year of 2001 to 2006 aiming at estimating regression models for panel data. The number of total community health agents for each county was used as the explaining variable. The outcome suggests that the CHAP could affect the important changes of the health indexes in a more decisive way. Nonetheless, the role of the CHAP on the social context can not be contested, especially in the rural areas. It is suggested, however, that the State Health Management search for further alternatives and turn itself more affective by promoting better training for the health agents.