[Brazilian men's integral health attention: using indicators for monitoring health's promotion and attention].

This article presents and discusses the initial actions of Brazilian National Men's Health Policy (PNAISH) concerning indicators used for monitoring promotion and assistance actions of men's health. This multiple case study was developed among five Brazilian cities which had implanted the PNAISH: (Goiânia (GO), Joinville (SC), Petrolina (PE), Rio Branco (AC) and Rio de Janeiro (RJ). A questionnaire was applied to verify the use of data and information required to calculate the indicators recommended by the PNAISH, concerning health's promotion, implementation and expansion of the men's health assistance system, according to the planned goals contained in the cities' local action plans. The results revealed a critical situation concerning monitoring of the activities through the proposed indicators taking into account the lack of standardized procedures to calculate them. Another specific limitation encountered was the limited access to or availability of data by age and sex in the health information systems. These results point out a lack of necessary indicators to define a base line situation, which weakens the systematic monitoring and future evaluation of the actions.