Infant mortality and Family Health units in the Brazilian Federation, 1998-2008

Objective: To analyze the relationship between infant mortality and population coverage of the Family Health units of the Brazilian Federation.Methods:An ecological study the unit of analysis was composed by 26 Brazilian States, in the historical series from 1998 to 2008. The percentage of population coverage Family Health Strategy (FHS) were described, the rate of infant and built linear regression analysis of the variables studied mortality. The statistical association was performed using the Pearson correlation test and linear regression.Results:There was an increase of 857% in FHS teams, expansion of 43% in population coverage and reduce infant mortality by 58% in Brazil. The expansion in coverage FHS was associated with reduced rates of infant mortality in 73% of Brazilian States (p<0.05).Conclusion: The findings explore a possible association between the increase in population coverage FHS with the reduction of infant mortality rates in Brazil.