Neonatal visits in the first week of life in primary care: low prevalence and related factors

Abstract

Objectives: to identify the prevalence of and factors related to access to neonatal consultation in the first week of life, in Brazil. Methods: a secondary data analysis from a national crosssectional survey involving 14,133 mothers from primary care services. Pearson chi-square was used to analyze the prevalence of access to appointment and Poisson regression to analyze related factors, considering prevalence ratio (PR) and confidence intervals (95%CI). Results: the prevalence of healthcare visits was 63.0% in Brazil. Children of mothers, aged 30-39 years (PR=1.065; CI=1.029-1.103), and of single mothers (PR=1.021; CI=1.00-1.042) had higher prevalence of access. Children from the northern region of Brazil had a lower prevalence of healthcare visits compared to children from other regions. Conclusions: low prevalence of access to neonatal visits was identified in the first week of life in primary care services; the region of residence, maternal age, and marital status were identified among the related factors.