[Municipalities Stratification for Health Performance Evaluation]

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Management
• Socioeconomic Determinants of Health

Background:

• Evaluating health management performance across diverse Brazilian municipalities presents challenges due to significant variations in population size and influential factors.
• A standardized approach is needed to group municipalities for equitable and accurate performance assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and present a stratification of Brazilian municipalities into homogeneous groups.
• To facilitate more robust evaluation studies of health management performance.

Main Methods:

• A methodological study utilizing selected indicators to classify municipalities.
• Data from 2010 demographic and health databases were analyzed using correlation tests and factor analysis.
• Classification considered population size and conditions influencing health management.

Main Results:

• Seven strata were identified: Large-sized; Medium-sized (favorable, regular, unfavorable influences); and Small-sized (favorable, regular, unfavorable influences).
• Municipalities with favorable influences concentrated in areas with better purchasing power and funding.
• Municipalities with unfavorable influences were concentrated in the North and Northeast regions.

Conclusions:

• The proposed classification effectively groups similar municipalities based on health management influencing factors.
• This provides a consistent and comparable basis for health management performance evaluation studies.
• The stratification offers a valuable tool for policymakers and researchers in Brazilian public health.