Association between high assessment of Primary Health Care and health state and use of health services in Brazil

Abstract

The present study described the characteristics of individuals who use Primary Health Care (PHC)
services and evaluated the association between the high assessment of PHC attributes, from the perspective
of users, with health conditions and the use of health services in Brazil. This work is a cross-sectional study
that analyzed data from the 2019 National Health Survey, in which 9,562 adults responded to the Primary
Care Assessment Tool (PCATool). The association between high PHC assessment (general score ≥ 6.6) and
health conditions and the use of services was tested, and it was found that the adult users who most use public PHC are between 40 and 59 years of age, women, with a low level of education, and brown. Those who best
evaluated PHC were individuals who used the same service, who sought out services in the last 2 weeks, and
who had been hospitalized. The greater use of health services points to a better assessment of PHC.