Prenatal care in Brazil: a cross-sectional study of the Program for Improving Primary Care Access and Quality, 2014

to describe the adequacy of primary health care center structure, requests for tests and prenatal care reported by female health service users within the scope of the Program for Improving Primary Care Access and Quality (PMAQ) in Brazil.

this was a cross-sectional study using PMAQ Cycle II (2014) data.

data from 9,909 health centers, 9,905 teams, and 9,945 female health service users were included; 70.1% (95%CI 69.2;71.0) of health centers had adequate structure; 88.0% (95%CI 87.4;88.7) of the teams requested all tests; 59.8% (95%CI 58.8;60.8) of female health service users reported receiving total guidance, and 23.4% of them (95%CI 22.5;24.2) underwent all physical examination procedures; teams that participated in both Cycle I and Cycle II presented better results.

in spite of shortcomings in Primary Care structure and work process in Brazil, PMAQ appears to positively affect prenatal care.