TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES OF HOSPITALIZATIONS FOR AMBULATORY CARE-SENSITIVE CONDITIONS IN CHILDREN UNDER 1 YEAR OF AGE IN THE STATE OF BAHIA, 2009 TO 2019

Abstract

Primary health care (PHC) is considered by the Ministry of Health to be the gateway to the Unified Health System (SUS), with the purpose of organizing the flow of health actions and services from low complexity to high complexity. This is designated as the set of individual and collective care aimed at the promotion, protection of diseases, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and harm reduction, obeying the principles of universality, accessibility, integrality, equity and decentralization of services. It is believed that this has great relevance with regard to the resolvability of health problems, with the purpose of minimizing hospital admissions that would be prevented by PHC actions.  It is necessary to analyze the trends in the causes of Hospitalizations for Ambulatory Care-Sensitive Conditions (ACSC) in children under 1 year of age in the state of Bahia, Brazil, from 2009 to 2019. Simple linear regression analysis with Prais-Wisnten correction, significance 5%, was performed through an ecological time series study, in which the information was collected from the database of the Hospital Information System of the Unified Health System (SIH/SUS). Of the ten main causes of hospitalizations among children under one year of age, three showed a trend towards a reduction in their rates, but five showed an increase. A new profile of the causes of HACSC was established in 2017, when pulmonary diseases began to predominate. The results infer that the high population coefficient of avoidable hospitalizations in children under one year of age and the recent change in the order of causes may be related to the determinants of health/disease and/or the practices and work processes involved with child health at the level of Primary Care.