Family Health Teams in the Federal District, Brazil: A geospatial approach to inequalities

Abstract

The Family Health Strategy is known to minimize the effects of health inequalities. This descriptive study aimed to present the distribution of Family Health teams (eSF) and PHC Units (UBS) in the Federal District (DF) using the Health Vulnerability Index (IVSaúde) and demographic density categorized by census tracts as parameters. We employed data from the most recently published demographic Census and official data from the National Registry of Health Establishments and the DF’s State Health Secretariat. The results revealed that the DF has a heterogeneous population when it comes to vulnerability and that most of the high-risk census tracts are in peripheral areas. The DF has 165 UBS and 615 eSFs (mean: 3.7 teams/UBS). Around 35% of the census tracts have low-risk IVSaúde, and 19.8% have high and extremely high risk. The study showed that most UBS and teams are in high demographic density and more significant vulnerability areas. However, there is still a need to increase the number of teams and UBS for adequate coverage of the model adopted in the federal capital and reduce the ratio of teams per health establishment.