Assessing the impact of a doctor in remote areas of Brazil

OBJECTIVES: The More Doctors Program (MDP) is an ongoing Brazilian policy that aims to improve healthcare by providing physicians to the most vulnerable municipalities. We aimed to measure the impact of MDP in mortality and infant mortality rate, the proportion of live births with low weight, prenatal appointments, childbirths at first and fifth min Apgar, public health investment and immunization in Brazil.

METHODS: Municipal health indicators were collected before and after the intervention (2012 and 2015). Effects were measured by applying propensity score matching with difference-in-differences.

RESULTS: Our findings show that infant mortality presented the highest improvement during the period (a decrease in 11 infant deaths per 1000 live births, p < 0.01). A significant effect, albeit smaller, was also found for the age-standardized total mortality (a decrease in five deaths per 10,000 residents), proportion of children with Apgar score lower than 8 in the fifth min and children with low birth weight.

CONCLUSIONS: MDP contributed to improve important health indicators, highlighting the importance of a doctor in remote areas of Brazil.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2020

Erschienen:

2020

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:65

Enthalten in:

International journal of public health - 65(2020), 3 vom: 22. Apr., Seite 267-272

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Dos Santos, Joana Raquel Raposo [VerfasserIn]
Dos Santos, Hellen Geremias [VerfasserIn]
Dias, Carlos Manuel Matias [VerfasserIn]
Filho, Alexandre Dias Porto Chiavegatto [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Journal Article
Mais médicos
Propensity score
Public health
Public policy

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 05.10.2020

Date Revised 05.10.2020

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1007/s00038-020-01360-z

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM308984323