Vigilância do óbito fetal e infantil na Região Ampliada de Saúde Jequitinhonha, Minas Gerais

Abstract

Whereas the affordable and good quality health services should be able to recognize preventable child deaths and implement measures to reduce them, conducting investigations that can scale the main determinants of the occurrence of infant deaths so that can support the organization and planning of public policies, this study aims to analyze the factors related to the investigation of fetal and infant deaths in the Extended Jequitinhonha Health Region, Minas Gerais, during the period of 2007 to 2012. The data collection was done through the use of questionnaires containing demographic, and socioeconomic data, as well as data obtained from the investigation of fetal and infant deaths, responded by the Municipal Health Offices, members of the child and fetal death Prevention Committee or individuals responsible for the investigations in 33 municipalities of the Extended Jequitinhonha Health Region. In addition, we used a script called Research Summary Sheets to examine the completeness of the information of infant and fetal deaths investigated between 2007-2012. The results of this study indicate that there was no agreement between the answers given by respondents, showing the need for further clarification, mainly by the Municipal Health Offices, as to the reality of the performance of municipalities regarding the investigations. Moreover, the fact that the activities of the Prevention Committee of Child and Fetal Death in the municipalities are not official favored no investigation of deaths. Also it was observed that, of 598 children and 477 fetal deaths, only 22.2% and 18.4%, respectively, were investigated. However, the investigations have not been implemented satisfactorily. We observed different behavior in the completion of the research forms. The high proportion of incomplete records point to the existence of obstacles in the process of filling them out. Thus, after the data analysis it was found that there are several factors that can interfere with the practice of research, among them, infrastructure, technical-operational and political issues. Finally, these results indicate that the operationalization of fetal and infant death investigation, although required by law, has deficiencies favoring the large number of deaths not investigated during the study period, affecting the ability to reduce infant and fetal mortality in the region studied.