Community guidance and family focus: evaluation of users and professionals of the family health strategy

Abstract Objective To evaluate the presence and extent of community guidance and family focus in the primary health care of children in Family Health Strategy (FHS) units in Pernambuco from the perspective of users and professionals. Method Cross-sectional study with 431 caregivers of under-one children and 33 health professionals. The child and professional versions of the validated PCATool–Brazil instrument were used in the study. Descriptive analysis was performed and an ANOVA was carried out to compare the mean scores between the municipalities using the Stata 12.1 SE software. Results The attributes family focus and community guidance had low scores (< 6.6) according to the judgment of caregivers who use the FHS as a regular source of care, what was different from the evaluation of professionals (scores > 6.6). No statistically significant differences were observed (p < 0.05) between the municipalities. Conclusion The attributes were considered to fall short of the ideal from the perspective of caregivers of children and were better evaluated by health professionals of the three municipalities. These results are intended to aid managers and health professionals in decision-making in the Family Health context.