Over the past two decades, primary health care (PHC) implementation has prevented more than 300,000 child deaths in four Latin American countries, and in an economic crisis scenario, more than 140,000 child deaths by 2030. It may be possible to prevent it. This was the main conclusion of a study coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a center supported by the La Caixa Foundation, and published in The Lancet Global Health.
The 2018 Astana Declaration emphasized the important role of PHC in ensuring that all people enjoy the highest possible standard of health and achieving universal health coverage. The Declaration also emphasized the urgent need to assess the effectiveness of PHC strategies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to make them more effective and sustainable.
Ratings from multiple countries
“Our effort is the first comprehensive attempt to assess the impact of PHC as a macro strategy in four countries that represent the majority (62%) of Latin America's population,” said ISGlobal, who leads the Health Impact Assessment Group. says researcher Davide Racera. He and his team conducted a retrospective impact assessment in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico from 2000 to 2019 using data on PHC coverage and birth-to-five mortality. They also used his forecast model to 2030 under various economic scenarios.
The analysis showed that high PHC prevalence was associated with significantly lower neonatal (almost 30%) and under-five mortality rates. The effects of PHC were particularly strong for poverty-related conditions (such as anemia and malnutrition) and vaccine-preventable diseases. The model predicts that in a moderate economic crisis scenario, expanding PHC coverage could avert 142,285 child deaths in the four countries by 2030.
Latin American countries have been among the hardest hit by the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and may be forced to implement austerity measures.
However, our findings show that scaling up PHC to protect a growing number of vulnerable populations will reduce the health impacts of the current economic crisis and meet the Sustainable Development Goals for child health. has been shown to be an effective strategy for achieving ”
Ana Moncayo, lead author of the study and researcher at the Center for Health Research in Latin America (CISeAL)
The authors also highlight the importance of having sufficient and high-quality administrative data (demographic, socio-economic, and health-related information) to enable robust research to guide decision-making. There is.
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Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)
Reference magazines:
Moncayo, AL, et al. (2024) Can primary health care reduce the impact of the economic crisis on children's health? Integrated multi-country assessment and predictive analysis in Latin America. Lancet Global Health. doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(24)00094-9.
