Abstract
Objectives
The More Doctors Program (MDP) is an ongoing Brazilian policy that aims to improve healthcare by providing physicians to the most vulnerable municipalities. We aimed to measure the impact of MDP in mortality and infant mortality rate, the proportion of live births with low weight, prenatal appointments, childbirths at first and fifth min Apgar, public health investment and immunization in Brazil.
Methods
Municipal health indicators were collected before and after the intervention (2012 and 2015). Effects were measured by applying propensity score matching with difference-in-differences.
Results
Our findings show that infant mortality presented the highest improvement during the period (a decrease in 11 infant deaths per 1000 live births, p < 0.01). A significant effect, albeit smaller, was also found for the age-standardized total mortality (a decrease in five deaths per 10,000 residents), proportion of children with Apgar score lower than 8 in the fifth min and children with low birth weight.
Conclusions
MDP contributed to improve important health indicators, highlighting the importance of a doctor in remote areas of Brazil.
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We thank FAPESP that funded our research. We declare the funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
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This study was funded by process Number 201709369-8, from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Brazil.
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dos Santos, J.R.R., dos Santos, H.G., Dias, C.M.M. et al. Assessing the impact of a doctor in remote areas of Brazil. Int J Public Health 65, 267–272 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01360-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01360-z