[Evaluation of the primary health care reform: preventive practices and inequalities].

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate primary care reform (PCR) in Barcelona during the year 2000 using 3 preventive practices: anti-smoking advice, blood pressure measurement, and flu vaccination. Any inequalities of gender, age, or social class in receiving these practices are also assessed.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study.

SETTING

Barcelona Health Survey, primary health care, Spain, year 2000.

PARTICIPANTS

Non-institutionalised residents of the city of Barcelona over 15 years old in the year 2000 (N=10,000 people).

MAIN MEASUREMENTS

The indicators used were the prevalences of receiving the 3 practices. Descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed.

RESULTS

Receiving the preventive practices studied is greater in areas where PCR was established longer, compared to the centres that had not begun the reforms (63.7% as opposed to 53.2%, respectively). Anti-smoking advice, for women, is less frequent in the more disadvantaged classes (odds ratio [OR] =0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.55-1).

CONCLUSIONS

PCR is a factor associated with carrying out preventive practices. No significant disparities between social class or gender were found for those who received the preventive practices.