Agenda for Scaling up Nutritional Care of Childhood Malnutrition: Results of an inter-federate pact at Unified Health System in Brazil

Abstract

Objective
To assess compliance with the goals of the Agenda for Scaling Up Nutritional Care of Childhood Malnutrition in 2013 by identifying the variables associated with municipal performance of the agreed-upon goals.

Methods
This cross-sectional study used secondary data from the Ministry of Health on the 212 municipalities that compose the Agenda and the three goals for 2013. Information was also collected from the Ministry of Health’s electronic form, which investigates the Agenda’s implementation. The data were analyzed by the Chi-square test with a significance level of 5%.

Results
The variables that simultaneously contributed to the good performance of the nutritional follow-up made by the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System and to the families enrolled in the Bolsa Familia Program were: smaller population, municipality being located in the Brazilian Northeast region, municipality having used the resource, greater coverage provided by primary health care and the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System.

Conclusion
Although the study data have been only partly assessed, it is evident that monitoring the municipalities is essential to increase the Agenda’s effectiveness. Monitoring enables one to understand the Agenda’s implementation process and to identify the factors that may challenge its execution. It allows the development of other strategies for the next assessment cycle, according to municipal reality and limitations/profile.