Environmental Health and Primary Health Care in micro-territories: the infant mortality rate as a guide for the healthcare team

Abstract

In the past 20 years, the Brazilian Unified Health System has improved primary health care and the implementation of environmental health surveillance. In Brazil, basic sanitation coverage has also improved. Macro-regional inequalities are known to exist, but there is little information about the micro-territories where primary care actions are being carried out. This study attempts to describe the influence of drinking water coverage (DWC), sanitation (SC) and solid waste management services (SWMS) on the infant mortality rate (IMR) in areas covered by primary care facilities (PCF), within the Northwest Health District of Campinas/SP. An ecological study was conducted using secondary data for the year 2000. In the eight PCF, DWC varied between 96.3 % and 99.9 %, SC between 67 % and 99.8 %, and SWMS between 95.8 % and 99.9 %. The IMR varied between 5.5 ‰ and 22.9 ‰. An inverse relationship was found, in which the larger the DWC (R2= 0.73), SC (R2= 0.78) and SWMS (R2= 0.95) the lower was the IMR. In addition to other factors, basic sanitation affects the health of the population and, according to the results presented here, there are inequalities in the areas covered by the PCF. Therefore, managers and health professionals, especially those in primary care, should take these factors into consideration to set priorities, actions and targets for integral care, intersectoral collaboration and health surveillance.