da Cunha Elenice Machado, Giovanella Ligia
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21040-360.
Cien Saude Colet. 2011;16 Suppl 1:1029-42. doi: 10.1590/s1413-81232011000700036.
Longitudinality, which is concerned with Primary Health Care (APS) professionals accompanying patients over time, is considered a central feature of this level of health care. The fulfilment of this attribute is related to positive health results, which justify its use for assessing Primary Health Care. On the other hand, the term is not commonly used by Brazilian authors, and in international literature the term "continuity of care" is used with a similar meaning. Therefore, this study is composed of a conceptual revision of longitudinality/continuity of care, as well as the identification of its dimensions so as to enable the actual performance of this attribute to be assessed. As a result, the similarity between the two terms is highlighted, although the identified dimensions of each attribute do not entirely coincide. The revision allowed three dimensions to be adopted in accordance with the context of the Brazilian public health care system: identification of the basic unit as a regular source of care, a long-lasting treatment bond and continuous information. The proposal of an APS evaluation variables presented herein is line with these dimensions.
纵向性关注初级卫生保健（APS）专业人员长期陪伴患者，被视为这一级别卫生保健的核心特征。这一属性的实现与积极的健康结果相关，这证明了将其用于评估初级卫生保健的合理性。另一方面，巴西作者并不常用这个术语，在国际文献中，“医疗连续性”一词具有类似的含义。因此，本研究包括对医疗纵向性/连续性的概念修订，以及确定其维度，以便能够评估这一属性的实际表现。结果，突出了这两个术语之间的相似性，尽管每个属性确定的维度并不完全一致。根据巴西公共卫生保健系统的背景，此次修订采用了三个维度：将基本单位确定为常规护理来源、长期的治疗关系和持续的信息。本文提出的APS评估变量建议与这些维度一致。
