Use of a child health surveillance instrument focusing on growth. A cross-sectional study

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Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
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Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study

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Erika Morganna Neves de Araujo1, Marcia Teles de Oliveira Gouveia2, Dixis Figueroa Pedraza3

  • 1Master's Student, Nursing, Postgraduate Public Health Program, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (UEPB), Campina Grande (PB), Brazil.

Sao Paulo Medical Journal = Revista Paulista De Medicina
|November 9, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Child health handbooks are crucial for monitoring growth, but their use in Brazil showed significant data entry errors. Improved data quality was linked to larger healthcare teams, highlighting a need for better child health surveillance practices.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health
  • Health Services Research

Background:

  • Child health handbooks are key indicators of healthcare quality.
  • Effective use of these tools is essential for child health surveillance, particularly for monitoring growth.
  • This study evaluated the utilization of child health surveillance tools, focusing on growth monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the use of child health surveillance tools by healthcare professionals.
  • To assess the quality of data entry in child health handbooks, focusing on growth parameters.
  • To analyze the association between handbook completion and sociodemographic characteristics.

Main Methods:

  • A cross-sectional study was conducted within the Family Health Strategy in two Brazilian municipalities.
  • Data were collected from 321 children under five years old, including sociodemographic information from mothers.
  • Analysis included growth charts, supplementation records, immunization schedules, and the association between handbook completion and sociodemographics.

Main Results:

  • High frequencies of inadequate data entry were observed across all parameters, from 41.1% (weight-for-age) to 95.3% (BMI-for-age).
  • Inadequate data entry was more prevalent in children aged 25 months and older.
  • Fewer healthcare professionals in healthcare teams correlated with higher rates of inadequate data entry.

Conclusions:

  • The utilization of child health handbooks for growth monitoring in the studied municipalities was found to be deficient.
  • Improved data entry quality was associated with locations having larger healthcare teams.
  • Enhancing the proper use of child health handbooks is critical for effective child health surveillance.
Abstract

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